


Arakhne of the Floating Mountain

by aerys



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Canon Queer Character of Color, Eventual Romance, F/F, Fantasy, Geographical Isolation, Hate to Love, Isolation, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Character of Color, Lesbian Sex, Modern Setting Retelling of Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Original Character(s), Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Queer Character, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:53:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23934109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerys/pseuds/aerys
Summary: Arakhne wants to be left alone in her floating palace and make dresses but most importantly, hide from Athena, whom she humiliated all those years ago. The daughters of God, triplets Soledad, Luna, and Estelle, need gowns for their coronation as the Queens of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory - and Arakhne is the only one who can take on the task. The four of them come to a mutually beneficial agreement - but none of them are too happy about it.
Relationships: Arakhne/Original Characters, Arakhne/Original Female Characters
Kudos: 6





	1. The Palace in the Sky

“You are difficult to find, even for us.”

Soledad eyed Arakhne the seamstress up and down, and Arakhne looked away. Making eye contact with a being that radiated light from every pore of her dark skin was impossible. Not that Arakhne wanted to look, anyway. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“What reason do you have for interrupting my tea, hm? It better be good,” Arakhne replied, staring at the vaulted ceiling of her palace’s great hall as her voice grew louder and echoed through the chamber. “You lot leave me alone for millennia and expect me to simply drop what I’m doing to make you three some dresses on a whim? Don’t you know I have other customers?”

Nostrils flaring, Soledad lunged toward Arakhne. She only advanced a step forward before an arm the color of dusk blocked her. 

“What my sister is _trying_ to say,” Luna replied, eyes narrowing at Soledad as she gently pushed her back to where she had stood, “is that this is quite an urgent event, and you are the only one with the necessary skills to make these dresses. There is no one else in the Three Realms who can mold celestial materials into clothing, after all.”

Arakhne paused, pursing her lips. 

“You come highly recommended!” the third sister, Estelle, added. 

Rolling her eyes, Soledad knocked Estelle in the back of her curly head with her palm. “Do not be a suck-up. Plus, it does not seem that this woman has _any_ other customers if she has time for idleness in the form of tea.”

“I am not a suck-up! We are all royalty, remember? This is no way for future queens to behave, by insulting someone whose help we seek while in _her own_ palace!”

Luna opened her mouth. Before she could respond, Arakhne cut her off.

“ _Enough!_ I have had it with your noise! Why should I help an ungrateful group of brats like you?”

“Who are you calling _brats?!_ Do we look like children to you?! We are the same age!” Soledad shouted as she broke free from Luna’s grasp before her sister could stop her. “I will become Queen of Heaven in a few days, do not forget that!”

Before Soledad could reach Arakhne, the dressmaker swiped her hand through the air before her, as if slicing an apple with a sword. A gale of wind sent Soledad flying into the stained glass window across the hall, smashing it and sending the glowing woman tumbling through it. Soledad shrieked as she latched onto the windowpane where the jagged glass would cut a mortal’s fingers. Hers remained unscathed.

“I don’t care who you are, or which realms you represent!” Arakhne roared. “I don’t care if God your father comes to me and smites me down from the sky for my crimes!”

Luna looked on, the color draining from her face as she stood frozen in place. Estelle glided across the multicolored marble floor to where Soledad floated back in through the shattered window, eyes glowing red. Gaze darting between Luna, Soledad, and Arakhne, Estelle planted herself before Soledad, clamping her hands on her sister’s shoulders. “Stay there, or I _will_ enchant you.”

“When I count to three, I want the three of you _out_ of my sight!”

“ _Wait_!” Luna begged, “Please, my lady, you are our only hope! I apologize for my sister’s candor. But what can we do to make you more amenable to the idea of making our coronation dresses?”

Bristling, Arakhne opened her mouth, then closed it. She turned away from the three, her face reddening. 

But when Arakhne turned back around, her face had regained its original color. She glared at the three sisters, a vulture eyeing its prey.

“I will make your silly little dresses, and forget the _disaster_ you’ve made in my home,” Arakhne began, gaze trained on Soledad as she spoke. 

Spitting on the floor, Soledad bared her teeth, but said nothing. Estelle stood her ground between her sister and the seamstress. Her face hardened, as did her resolve. She may have been the youngest of the triplets, but she was by no means the weakest. 

Eyebrows furrowing, Arakhne turned her face away and ignored the display, instead, turning to Luna and waving the other two sisters off. “Ah, it seems you are the only adult in the room. Why do I even bother addressing those two, who have one shared brain cell between them...”

“Thank...you…?” Luna replied with a raised eyebrow. If she had a pulse, it would have risen tenfold in that moment.

“Anyway, let me not beat around the bush further. What I want is power. Make of that what you wish.”

“What do you mean by that?” 

The sisters looked across the hall at each other. Their faces contorted at the request. Dried red and orange leaves blew into the palace via the broken window, dancing as they swirled through the air and came to rest on the marble tiles within.

“Does ‘make of that what you wish’ mean something else in Heaven, Hell and Purgatory? Or are you deliberately being obtuse?” Arakhne asked as she stared at her nails with hooded eyelids. “Do I need to spell it out for you? I want to _rule_ . Anything that will give me a break from dealing with… _idiots_... would be ideal...”

_Even Kyrios putting me here to hide from that wretch Athena after I humiliated her all those years ago didn’t help me… No one respects my solitude…_ Arakhne thought. She watched as the three sisters huddled together.

“She is _insufferable!_ ” Soledad all but shouted as Luna approached. “Does she expect to usurp us?!”

“I can hear you, you know. The acoustics in here aren’t very conducive to private conversations,” Arakhne pointed out as she drew her fine maroon cloak around her, turning to leave. “I’ll be in my chambers then. Hope there are enough brain cells among the three of you to figure out a solution.”

Soledad bristled again, and Estelle put her hands out to restrain her. “We do not need you going through a second window, sister.”

Luna cracked a smile, her dark features seeming to pulsate as the moonlight radiated from her body. “The only mutually beneficial proposition is for one of us to marry her.”

“Go on, then,” Soledad said with a smirk. “You seem to have come up with that idea fairly quickly. I take it you have volunteered yourself?”

Estelle chuckled. Her starry skin twinked in tune with the melody of her voice. “Was there something you wanted to tell us, sister? I did not know such foul women were your type.”

Doubling over, Soledad nearly spat again as she let out a high-pitched shriek of laughter and latched onto Estelle. They both fueled each other’s laughter and it grew until the marble of the palace laughed with them. Luna could only stand there with her arms crossed over her chest, frowning.

“This is not funny! If we do not resolve this, _none_ of us will have proper dresses for our coronations! We will have to settle for low-quality _earthly_ materials! Do you know how foolish the three of us will look wearing something like _silk_ to such an event? Let us find a solution quickly before this… this... _woman..._ changes her mind.”

“As you wish, your Highness,” Soledad replied, wiping a tear from her eye as she curtsied mockingly before straightening up as the tear vaporized from the heat of her skin. 

“I do not want the victim to be me,” Estelle said, regaining her composure almost instantaneously. Her eyes widened a bit. “She may be one of the most beautiful women in all of history, but her personality leaves much to be desired.”

“And we cannot give her some land and a title somewhere obscure, so she can think she has some power? Problem solved,” Soledad shrugged.

“No, you imbecile. At least if she is with one of us, she can have protection. You know about what happened to her and Athena, do you not? If Athena finds her, she will end up directly in the Ninth Circle, I imagine. And I cannot have her blood on my hands,” Luna shuddered.

“Why do we care about some seamstress’s feelings or her wellbeing? She has done nothing to ingratiate herself to us, we are simply here because she is the only one known to be skilled enough to weave with sunshine, stardust, and moonlight. If we have to, we can do it ourselves.”

Estelle cringed, rolling up her sleeve to expose the deep zigzag-shaped scar on her arm. “I would not try that if I were you.”

Soledad jumped as Luna took Estelle’s arm gently in her hands. “What in the Three Realms…”

“I take that back…” Soledad muttered.

“I was curious and got a bit overconfident…” Estelle said, voice trailing off. “We may become the Queens of the Three Realms, but it would be foolish for us to attempt this on our own, unless we want to cover ourselves in scars and potentially vaporize ourselves. Let us entrust this task to Arakhne. She has had millennia to perfect her craft.”

Luna and Soledad looked at Estelle’s arm, and then at each other. 

“I do not believe Father would even be able to handle this, truthfully. Let us not think ourselves more powerful than him,” Luna said solemnly, her face resembling the rocking tumult of the ocean when a lone ship has gone out during a hurricane. 

“So who will do the strange mortal deed of marrying this woman for political gain, then?” Soledad asked.

“I realize this can be quite a risk but… why not have her decide?” Luna countered.

Swallowing loudly, Estelle scrunched up her face. “She obviously likes you the most.”

“No, she does not…” 

“Hey, I like this idea!” Soledad said as she let out another high-pitched shriek of laughter. “You seem jealous, Estelle!”

It was Luna’s turn to let out her soft laugh. Estelle could feel her skin twinkle as she covered her face. 

“All right, all right. Enough of this…” Luna said after a moment, waving her hands in the air. “There is not a lot that we can do at this point. We must propose this option so Arakhne can finally start working on our dresses. Time is of the essence, sisters. I am afraid we must put the good of the realm over our own feelings.”

Soledad and Estelle murmured a half-hearted assent, and thus the triplets ventured down the corridor where Arakhne had gone to her chambers. 

The palace was not massive, but it was sizable for one person living alone. When they passed the kitchen, they could see the enchanted rodents hard at work preparing fresh bread and cheese for Arakhne’s next meal. They chattered amongst themselves in their squeaking voices, unintelligible to anyone but each other. Estelle found herself enamored by their tiny colorful garments, many of which took on a faded appearance from being covered in a heavy dusting of flour from their work. 

Once the sisters passed the kitchen, they came across several dress forms and mannequins that littered the hallway, all adorned with various extremely detailed gowns. Some of them seemed to pulsate and glow in lights of various colors, and many of these colors were invisible to even celestial beings. But the craftsmanship made the sisters stop and examine for faults they would never find.

After what seemed like years of simply viewing the museum of Arakhne’s works, they arrived in their host’s chambers. They heard the mechanical shifting of the loom as Arakhne added another line of thread to the cloth pulled tightly across it. 

Stepping into Arakhne’s chambers, the sisters simply watched her work. She had her gaze downcast as she focused her attention fully on her task; she did not hear the sisters arrive. At that moment, Arakhne was at peace.

“The three of us want to propose a solution,” Soledad began. “Make us our dresses, and you get your choice of which of us to marry.”

The thread that Arakhne wove through the loom snapped as she raised her eyes.


	2. Scars of Athena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arakhne has a breakdown.

“Do you take me for a fool?” Arakhne asked, voice hovering above a whisper and seeming to hang in the air like a dangerous feather.

“N-no, my lady…” Luna replied, stepping in front of Soledad as Estelle held her sister back with her hand clamped over her mouth. 

Arakhne raised her gaze in increments, but when she stopped, she eyed the wall behind the three sisters, cheeks flushed the color of wild azaleas. Her shoulders heaved. She gritted her teeth so hard that if her body had not resisted, she would have broken her jaw, splintering calcium and spraying blood and muscle all over the now immaculate cloth before her.

“This is in fact a serious proposal,” Estelle interjected, taking a step toward Arakhne. “A-any of us would be  _ lucky…  _ no,  _ blessed,  _ even, to marry you… And we can offer you protection from Athena…”

Soledad and Luna both nodded in agreement while muttering in agreement with their sister. However, Arakhne seemed to freeze in place, her scowl replaced with furrowed eyebrows and parted lips. Her lion-like bravado had been stripped away. Now she resembled a young, haunted maid who had moments ago witnessed the brutal murder of her mother. 

“What is wrong with her?” Soledad asked Luna from behind Estelle’s hand.

Luna opened her mouth to respond when Arakhne slid to the floor on her knees as she gasped, tears overwhelming her eyelashes and spilling in rivulets down her cheeks. She ignored the three women who stood before her in the entrance to her chambers, hiccuping before she wailed and more tears flowed down her face and neck. The sisters exchanged puzzled looks.

Kneeling beside Arakhne, Luna hesitated as she reached and patted the wailing woman on the shoulder. At first, Arakhne did not respond; Luna made another attempt; this time, Arakhne paused mid-wail, and then slumped down further on the marble floor and came to rest with her head perched on Luna’s lap, wavy auburn hair splayed out across her robes. Arakhne’s cries grew softer and softer as Luna patted her hair, until small droplets glided from the corners of her eyes and all she could do was sigh to herself. 

“I can’t even count how many years it’s been since I heard that name outside my own mind,” Arakhne croaked. She made no move to leave Luna’s lap. “I feared this arrangement was being made out of pity but… It’s true that…  _ Athena _ … still seeks vengeance.... The gods do not so easily forget. As I shouldn’t forget my own arrogance… Lest I get turned into a spider permanently this time…”

“So, in that case, will you accept our offer?” Luna inquired, fingers absently running through the waves of Arakhne’s hair. 

Eyelids fluttering shut, Arakhne hummed as Luna’s fingertips brushed against her scalp. It had been too long since she had been touched by someone aside from herself. Warmth pooled from the top of her head down to her nipples and then to between her legs. She jolted upright.

“Enough…” Arakhne said weakly as she sat up, wrapping her arms across her own chest and crossing her legs. 

“I was about to tell you both to get a room,” Soledad quipped.

Luna and Arakhne both looked at the ground, faces flushed. Estelle covered her own mouth to stop the others from seeing her smirking. They were all silent for a few more moments.

“I accept. But if any of you say anything about what happened here today, I won’t hesitate to dismember you and throw you into the pits of Tartarus. I don’t care if that’s your domain, I will do it.”

Sniffling and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Arakhne could not have looked less intimidating as she made that statement. 

“ _ Sure  _ you will…” Soledad responded with a roll of her eyes. “I do not doubt it. You are  _ very  _ scary when you are angered.”

Glaring, Arakhne said nothing as she rose from the floor and returned to the bench at her loom. Luna followed suit, dusting off her robes as she stood up.

“When can we expect you to make a decision, my lady?” Estelle asked. “On your choice of a wife, I mean.”

Blushing again, Arakhne sighed loudly. “I suppose the only way I would be able to come to that decision would be to spend more time with you lot and get to know you, don’t you think? In that case I will need to host you here for some time.”

“Will we not distract you from your work on our dresses?” Luna countered, but she avoided eye contact.

“In the end this is all unavoidable, I suppose. We will have to multitask,” Arakhne said with a frown as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “When you give me such a choice I simply cannot choose at random. Whichever of the three of you annoy me the least will have to do.”

“I am so lucky that I can only be a source of annoyance,” Soledad cheered, punching the air with her fists. 

“Something we can both agree on, then.”

“ _ Hey-!”  _ Soledad responded as she began to glow. Estelle dragged her sister out of the room by the shoulders.

“We have coronation preparations to attend to…” Luna began, thinking aloud. “But the journey here was so treacherous that I do not believe it realistic to travel back and forth between Hell and here. Even Heaven and Purgatory are troublesome to reach in their own respects… Can we send messages from here somehow?”

Pursing her lips, Arakhne stroked her chin. After a few seconds, she raised her eyebrows in realization. 

Arakhne rose from the bench and approached the stained glass window at the end of the room. She unlatched it and allowed the wind to swing it open. Luna listened as Arakhne whistled a quick melody. The sound of rustling feathers floated through the air.

“Astrapi! Long time no see,” Arakhne exclaimed. 

Luna gasped as the other woman smiled for the first time since she had met her. Craning her neck, Luna could see Arakhne reach out the window to stroke the head of what looked like a small, round, grey pigeon. It cooed as it moved itself closer to Arakhne’s hands.

“Yes unfortunately it’s… quite an urgent matter. But it shouldn’t be a bother for you, right? And you’ve been to the Three Realms before, so it should be manageable.”

The pigeon cooed in response. Arakhne nodded.

“Of course I’ll give you all the ants you can eat once you get back. I promise,” Arakhne replied, holding up three fingers next to her face and pressing her other hand against her heart. “We can pinky swear if that’ll reassure you.”

With a small chuckle, Arakhne held out her pinky and laced it together with one of Astrapi’s talons. Astrapi seemed satisfied, and thus, Arakhne turned away from the window. Arakhne rustled around in one of her cupboards and withdrew some parchment, along with a quill and a pot of ink. 

“You intend to send a pigeon to deliver messages for us?!”

“Astrapi isn’t just any pigeon. Your father gave him to me so I could communicate with my family on Earth. But…”

“But what?”

“I stopped sending messages to them ages ago since they, you know. Died.”

Luna frowned, and Arakhne looked away as she slid the writing utensils and parchment toward the other woman.

“I am… sorry to hear about that. That must have been… difficult? To be fair, I have never had to deal with loss or anything of that sort since, as you know, my sisters and our family are all immortal celestial beings.”

“Well aren’t you lucky,” Arakhne mused, her tone bitter. “Although I suppose it’s, as usual, my own fault for challenging the gods. If I hadn’t done that I would be down in Hell with everyone else, not up here on this stupid mountain alone talking to animals like a lunatic. The peace and quiet can be comforting but… perhaps after all these thousands of years, I- what is wrong with me, why am I telling you all this?!”

Picking up a quill and flattening out a piece of paper, Luna raised an eyebrow. “I do not mind listening to you speak about yourself. While I knew about your feud with Athena, I did not know much else. You are quite an interesting character, Arakhne.”

Shooting Luna a sideways glance, Arakhne stood and covered her cheeks with her hands. She strode out of her chambers without a word. Luna shook her head and chuckled as she dipped the quill into the pot of ink, and began to write. The sun that filtered in through the colored glass of the window began to sink lower in the sky, casting long shadows across the room. 

Looking up from her parchment, Luna watched for a moment as Astrapi hopped around on the windowsill, seeming to enjoy himself. Luna smiled as Astrapi launched himself toward her and perched on her shoulder. 

“Do not rush me…” she found herself saying to the pigeon, only to receive an unintelligible noise in response.

She giggled, and put her quill down to write once more. 


	3. A Gallery of Mice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soledad stirs the pot.

Arakhne marched down the corridor, the eyeless mannequins that littered the sides seeming to follow her as she moved. The gold threads that had been woven through the fabric of the tapestries that covered the wall like ornate wrapping paper seemed to sparkle as she walked past them. Something looked different about them today, Arakhne noted. She slowed her pace for a moment; once she realized she was getting distracted, she picked up again. Even after all these years of the tapestries decorating her palace, her own work still managed to catch her eye. 

“Where in the Three Realms have these two… celestial  _ morons _ gone off to?!” Arakhne muttered to herself, her hand still covering her face. The redness that colored her brown skin took its time to fade; this tested Arakhne’s patience.

She paused before one of the few hundred small, round mirrors that lined the corridor. Her eyes darted directly to the image of her own warm cheeks but she refused to make eye contact with her own reflection. The increased warmth in her body made her step away from the mirror, as she wondered once again what was wrong with her. 

“I’m just not used to visitors…” Arakhne explained to herself as she neared the kitchen. “They’ve turned my palace into a madhouse and it’s barely been a few hours…”

Sighing, Arakhne saw Luna, with her glistening skin hovering over her while she stroked her hair, within her mind’s eye. But unlike what had happened minutes ago, the scene continued with Luna leaning down to press her lips to Arakhne’s while Arakhne took the other woman’s hand and brought it close to her own chest so that Luna could fondle her breast. 

It was at that moment that she had turned to step across the grey marble threshold into the kitchen that Arakhne toppled forward with a  _ thud.  _ She had felt as if she would melt into the floor. But the fall threw her out of her daydream and she blinked several times.

“Oh shit…” came the loud voice of Soledad from what seemed to be a few meters away from her. 

“Are you all right, my lady?” came the gentle sing-song from Estelle.

Looking about, Arakhne ignored the two other women for the moment as the kitchen mice squeaked to each other and approached her. She smiled at them as she pushed herself back into a standing position. One of the mice squeaked and used one of its small rags to wipe the nonexistent dust from Arakhne’s knees. She hoped she would not bruise. 

“I’m fine,” Arakhne waved them away as she picked up the mouse and patted its head. “I hope you’re not bothering my little helpers! They’re very busy!” 

Arakhne shook her head and held the mouse next to her ear as it squeaked away. It appeared to be…  _ chuckling  _ about something, which in turn caused Arakhne to respond in kind. “Oh my little Rhode, is this true?”

Soledad and Estelle exchanged glances as Arakhne looked up at them both with a soft smile and a raised eyebrow. 

“Why are you looking at us like that?” Soledad asked Arakhne as the other woman placed a kiss on Rhode’s head. The mouse let out a squeak that the sisters assumed was a laugh as she wiped her paws in the front of her mouse-sized apron. 

“Rhode says she and my other mouse helpers enjoy your company and they’ve asked if you have any special dishes you want them to prepare. They love having guests and seeing new faces around here, and it’s been ages since I had one person show up, let alone three. And she wants you all to feel at home, I suppose. That’s a bit of a difficult request in this gods-forsaken place but she still wants to try,” Arakhne replied, placing Rhode onto Estelle’s shoulder.

“It is truly odd to hear you speak so kindly after you, only an hour ago, attempted to throw me from the heavens,” Soledad mused with a smirk, leaning against one of the counters in the kitchen behind her. “At least Rhode does not find me a nuisance.”

“You are not ingratiating yourself at the moment,” Estelle whispered into her sister’s ear as she took Rhode gently into her own hands. 

Squeaking to herself, Rhode kicked her small mouse feet in the air at this before she scurried up Estelle’s arm and up to her head. Rhode waded through her curly hair with glee, burrowing inside as if she were creating a nest. Estelle giggled, reaching inside the nest of her coils and withdrawing Rhode. She pressed the mouse’s cheek against her own and squealed.

Arakhne narrowed her eyes, but her face softened when she saw Estelle playing with Rhode, as they both seemed to be enjoying themselves. She pursed her lips.

“Perhaps… I didn’t know you well enough. What am I to do when someone comes into my house and starts making demands of me, hm?” Arakhne said finally, gritting her teeth at the end.

Soledad said nothing for the moment, instead stepping closer to Arakhne and looking her up and down, eyes trailing across every curve of her body, over each drape of the fabric of her robe, snaking along the curls of her hair, one by one. She smirked, taking another step forward. 

Then another. 

Until she stood mere centimeters away from the woman who had challenged a goddess -- and won.

Estelle’s eyes darted between the two women like the pendulum of a clock. Her mouth fell agape, wide enough that the snow caps of her teeth shone in a brilliant contrast to her dark, full lips. Rhode patted Estelle’s face with her small rodent hands and squeaked in her attempt to reassure the woman. 

“Are you starting something with me?” Arakhne said as if it were a reflex. However, she remained where she stood, her body refusing to shrink away from Soledad’s encroachment even as her cheeks flushed ever so slightly.

“It depends,” Soledad replied, making a show of eyeing the other woman.

“On what?” 

The two women stood eye to eye now, noses brushing against each other with the touch of a dove’s feather. Arakhne bit her lip without meaning to and Soledad’s smirk grew wider still.

Until that moment, Arakhne had not been cognizant of the solid granite countertop digging into her lower back. She gasped, but otherwise made no move to remove herself from her current position. 

Looking on from across the kitchen, Estelle could only observe. She could barely register that Rhode was pulling at her fingers and guiding her hand to Rhode’s head so as to pet the little mouse; her attention instead lay fixed on the scene before her. Things could only go downhill from here, Estelle realized. But knowing Soledad she would not take well to being told what to do by her youngest sister, even if they were only created a few minutes apart. What is a few minutes to an immortal being, then?

Meanwhile, the mice hard at work in the kitchen seemed to pay the trio no mind as they continued on with cooking and chattering among themselves as they passed each other ingredients. After a moment, Rhode seemed to jump as if jolted by an electric current, and she scurried away from Estelle’s hands as if being chased by a hawk to continue helping her comrades.

Arakhne’s gasp tickled the microscopic hairs of Soledad’s face, and the glowing woman chuckled. As Arakhne swallowed, eyes fluttering closed, Soledad reached up to cup the other woman’s cheek in her hands. It was as if on instinct that Arakhne left out a small moan, rubbing her face against Soledad’s hot hand like a cat. 

“You are so starved for affection that you will take it from anywhere,” Soledad said as more of a statement than anything else. “I meant only to tease you but this is a bit sad.”

It would have been an excellent time for a retort, but Arakhne could feel the warmth engulfing her and it was so pleasant that she lost her ability to respond in any sort of witty way. Soledad raised an eyebrow and looked to Estelle and then back at Arakhne again, seeming to suddenly realize what she had been doing. Before she could pull away, however, the other woman’s arms began to wrap themselves around the back of her neck, holding her in place. She almost pitied Arakhne, truthfully. And she was not sure herself about her own intentions. 

Did she want to comfort this lonely, bitter woman? Or had her original jest gone too far?

Rolling her eyes, Soledad scolded herself for thinking too far into things and instead placed her other hand on Arakhne’s waist, pulling the other woman against her chest and tilting her face toward her so she could press a fiery kiss to her parted lips.

At that moment, Estelle shrieked and ran from the room; but neither Soledad nor Arakhne paid her any mind.

Instead, the two women held onto each other as Arakhne melted against Soledad, seeming to never have enough warmth as she clung to the other woman as if she were a star that would soon grow to a massive scale only to collapse into itself and become a supernova and then later, a black hole, which would never exude any heat ever again. At the same time, the seamstress took her time, kissing Soledad back languidly as if she were savoring the taste of her lips.

When Soledad pulled away after quite a bit of time, Arakhne continued to stick to her like a fly to a spider’s web. She was lucky she did not have to be the spider in this situation. 

“You are very beautiful, I will admit it,” Soledad mumbled, her face between a grimace and a smirk as she eyed the mice around them. “But as happy as I would be to fuck you on your kitchen table, I do not like to have an audience. Especially not one that is so…  _ innocent... _ ”

Arakhne paused, her hair disheveled and her face flushed from the contact she had had with Soledad; she appeared to be in a daze of sorts. Her face fell once she realized what she had done, and she raised her hand, only for Soledad to react in time to grab a hold of her wrist and stop her mid-swipe. 

“Did you mean to slap me?” Soledad almost snarled.

Struggling against Soledad’s  _ very warm  _ hand around her arm, Arakhne stared at the ground, face still flushed, but she could not decipher why in that moment. Her eyes began to flutter closed again, but this time she stopped herself.

“You meant to take the piss out of me, didn’t you?” Arakhne asked as she swiped with her other hand and Soledad blocked her once again. 

“Of course I did!” Soledad responded; she was only half joking.

Scowling and trying to free herself from Soledad’s vice-like grip on her wrists, Arakhne could feel her face reddening as she thought of Soledad’s body against her once more. She did not know if she wanted to cry or kiss her again or smack her or run away or all four of those things. And even worse still, she hated herself for letting the other woman get into her head.

“Get the fuck out of my face and out of my fucking kitchen, then!” Arakhne roared, finally able to break free and using the rest of her energy to push Soledad away.

Without waiting for Soledad to comply, Arakhne stormed out of the kitchen, which had suddenly gone silent as the mice had paused their work to observe them. 

Head tilted to the side, Soledad could only watch the other woman leave, her glowing eyes alight with fire as they trailed down every one of Arakhne’s curves. But at the same time, Soledad could not remove the image of Arakhne from her mind as the other woman clung to her so desperately that it was as if they were to become one volcanic being if they were any closer to one another. 

She brought her fingers to her lips absently, as if the shadow of Arakhne’s lips had left an imprint where they had been.


	4. Birds of Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Estelle and Arakhne see a bird.

Estelle wandered through the greenhouse, allowing her fingers to brush against leaves the size of a small child as she walked by them. She hummed to herself, delighting in the noise the rustling made; who would have thought that such a place existed inside Arakhne’s imposing marble palace?

A few steps from her lay a stream that cascaded into a small waterfall and continued its way around the space and then out of sight. Pausing, Estelle widened her eyes, rubbing her chin. She looked one way - attention drawn to a net of pink flowers that draped down the rocky wall - and then the other way - where her gaze latched onto the bright rainbow-colored birds that chirped away at each other while digging in the damp earth. Estelle beamed.

“Oh, how sweet you all are…”

Beginning to whistle, she approached them. The birds stopped what they had been doing and stared at her.

She whistled again, at a higher pitch this time, as she inched toward the creatures that had made themselves comfortable beside a calathea. One of the birds started fussing, hopping up and down and flapping its wings in wide strokes and screeching, stopping Estelle in her tracks as her face fell. 

“I am sorry… did I do something to disturb you...?” She asked as the bird continued to screech.

Frowning, Estelle retreated. The frightened bird’s companion eyed her in silence and then went back to digging. 

Sighing, she could feel the tears stinging her lower eyelids and one mischievous droplet spilled over, trailing down her cheek, only to be wiped away as Estelle crouched down next to the patch of soil. She buried her face in her arm and wondered what she could have possibly done wrong.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” came the voice from behind her.

Estelle sniffled and stood up. Arakhne shuffled along the path, wiping her face in the fabric that draped over her chest and sniffled, too.

“My lady, I can explain--” 

“No need,” Arakhne waved her off, rolling her eyes. “Can’t go anywhere around here for some peace and quiet anymore… I see you’ve been annoying my parrots, good job. I was wondering why Sirius was making such a racket...”

“What did I do to cause him such a disturbance?” Estelle asked, covering her mouth with her hand as she stepped to stand beside Arakhne.

“Did no one teach you not to _whistle_ at birds? Makes them think you’re mocking them,” Arakhne grumbled, then smirked. “Besides, it’s too easy to tell them to go fuck themselves by accident that way.”

Gulping, Estelle’s head snapped back in the direction of Sirius and his companion as they picked up some bulbs in their mouths and placed them into the holes they had dug in the ground. They paid her no mind. Estelle, however, dug her fingers into her curly hair and pulled at the roots. 

“How could I have been so rude?” Estelle muttered, staring at the tiny waterfall that shone in the light of the setting sun pouring through the window behind Arakhne.

“Hey… relax, it’s not a whole thing…” Arakhne began, cringing. “Are you… are you crying because you thought you were rude to a bird?”

“Were you not crying a moment ago because… my sister kissed you?” Estelle replied, wiping one of her eyes. There was no malice in her voice, however; she simply stated fact. 

“W-what?! No!”

“I do not mean to be rude to you but please allow me to feel my emotions, and I will leave you to yours,” Estelle said, voice low as she crept closer to Sirius and his companion once again, this time curtsying before them and muttering an apology to them both as she felt her face grow flushed. 

Arakhne crossed her arms over her chest and watched the scene with the faintest of smiles, and Estelle glanced at her from the side of her eye. She did not know whether to laugh, be endeared by or be angry at the other woman and so she strode down the path toward the bench overlooking the creek, watching Estelle from afar but trying her hardest not to appear conspicuous. After a moment, Estelle followed her, collecting her skirt in her hand before sitting down beside her on the bench.

They both sat facing straight ahead. Now the only sound that greeted them was the trickling of water; even the parrots had calmed down and gone back to their peaceful work of gardening. Arakhne felt her eyes wandering to the side, fixed on Estelle’s sparkling dark skin that seemed to radiate even more as the sun set. She was transfixed.

Estelle’s eyes wandered, too, and as soon as she made eye contact with Arakhne, the other woman would go back to staring off at the brook as if she had not been looking at her intensely at all. 

_Finally… silence…_ Arakhne thought with a sigh.

Feeling eyes on her, Arakhne glanced to the side once more only to lock eyes with Estelle again. She felt her face heat up, the blush creeping up her neck and cheeks as the other woman looked away, not appearing to be in any sort of hurry. But the increased twinkling of Estelle’s skin gave her thoughts away.

“Are you done playing chicken with me?”

“What do you mean…? We are simply sitting here, are we not?”

“You keep staring at me…”

“And you at me.”

Arakhne blushed again, her olive skin taking on a scorched hue. It was at that moment that another parrot descended from the canopy of exotic rainforest plants surrounding them and perched upon Estelle’s lap, startling them both.

 _She’s like a magnet for animals…_ Arakhne thought to herself as she glanced at Estelle again, hearing her heart thumping in her ears and all the way down to the bare soles of her feet where they touched the earth. 

Giggling, Estelle patted the parrot’s head as it nuzzled against her hand as if guiding her in how to pet it correctly. She laughed before picking up the creature and scooting closer to Arakhne before she plopped it on the other woman’s lap, depositing it like a house cat presenting a human with one of its kills. 

“What is this one called?” Estelle asked with a small smile.

Lifting the parrot up by its small and deceptively light body, Arakhne gazed at it for a long time. She knew every creature that inhabited her palace’s grounds by name, and was able to easily differentiate between individuals who looked similar. But for some reason, she drew a blank.

“I’ve… never seen this bird before,” Arakhne whispered.

Puzzled, Estelle tilted her head to the side like a dog waiting for a ball to be thrown so it could chase after it. Her smile faded.

“How can that be?”

Shaking her head and wracking her brain, Arakhne could only continue staring at the bird, as if this would make her remember; but this was futile.

“It must have gotten here from somewhere else, then…” 

“Wait one moment… What is that upon its leg?”

“Hm?”

“That small cylindrical object…”

Her heart felt like it was going to run down her arm and leap from her fingertips as she scrambled to remove what Estelle had spotted from the creature’s leg. 

Trembling, Arakhne grabbed what turned out to be a rolled up slip of cloth and unfurled it, holding her breath. 

On the piece of cloth the size of a turriform snail shell, were the following four groups of numbers punctuated with an embroidered spider and signed with the image of an owl and nothing else:

_9 69131121225 61521134 251521_

“What does it say?” Estelle asked, her voice gentle, but with a slight waver.

As Arakhne opened her mouth to respond, she felt the greenhouse shrink until its walls were right up against her body, boxing her into an unforgiving, suffocating glass coffin. She struggled to breathe as it began to crush her, unyielding, as the darkness created a tunnel with her vision and her heart beat like it was made of a hummingbird’s wings. On her last attempt to draw breath, her vision went dark, and the last thing she heard was Estelle’s gasp as she tumbled from the bench into the cool, glistening water of the brook.

\--------------------

“Why do you insist on arguing about this with me? And why would anyone who is not Athena write in code?”

“I am simply stating that Athena’s sigil might be the owl, but many other deities also take it as their symbol, and thus it makes no sense to jump to conclusions… Is it not possible that Athena has gotten over their feud long ago? I cannot imagine holding a grudge for such a long time…”

“Estelle, you are incapable of remaining angry for more than three seconds, of course you cannot comprehend this…”

“Both of you are deviating from what is truly important, and that is this message. It is our duty to protect her, as we have already promised that we would.”

“Or else we will not have our dresses.”

“That is the least of our concerns.”

Arakhne stirred as the voices of the three women filtered down the hall, indicating that they were close by. She shifted, limbs brushing against something soft… _silk?_ As her eyelids fluttered open, she blinked several times to adjust to her surroundings. The long, heavy drapes of her window had been drawn, and the only light that she could see was the L-shaped bar of gold that emanated from the door to her room that had been left ajar.

Rubbing her eyes with her knuckles, Arakhne moved to uncover herself before she realized how easily her skin moved against the sheets. She did not remember how she had even gotten into bed in the first place, now that she thought about it. And even more alarming, she had no idea how she had ended up entirely naked.

She was not ashamed, of course, as she spent much of her time in the nude. But it was different being naked alone - and different in company. 

Her face flushed as she thought about one of the triplets disrobing her unconscious body and seeing her pierced nipples. She took one of the piercings between her fingers, biting her own lip to contain her moan. A fit of boredom had led her to try her own hand at piercing herself, but after that the appeal wore off. The novelty of it had been exciting, yet the healing process had almost driven her mad. But to say she regretted in the end would be a lie.

Despite finally being alone, Arakhne refused to let her imagination run rampant. Now was not the time for pleasures of the flesh. She threw the cover from her bed and rose, gathering her hair together and tying it up in a knot before exiting her room, not even bothering to dig through her mountain of clothes to find something worth wearing. Whatever the triplets were discussing seemed serious in Arakhne’s ears. She strode down the corridor, her bare feet sliding across the cool marble and making little noise as she followed the growing voices.

“We have yet to solve the mystery of how that parrot ended up here… It should not be physically possible…”

 _That’s right…_ Arakhne froze in her tracks. _She knows where I am…_

Clutching at her chest, Arakhne could only breathe deeply in an attempt to calm the spinning in her head. After a moment she stood upright once more and continued to follow the voices into the kitchen.

As soon as she entered the kitchen, the three sisters ceased their arguing immediately. She could feel their eyes on her more acutely than usual as she stared at them in turn. Estelle began twinkling and turned away from her, Luna trained her gaze on Arakhne’s face, while Soledad smirked and made no attempt to conceal how much she enjoyed the display of her body. 

“Stop staring at me as if you’ve never seen tits before. We all have them,” Arakhne growled, her face heating up as she approached the three women and sat down at the table beside them. 

The mice had all gone to bed for the evening, and the only noise now came from the sound of cicadas outside the palace. How cicadas ended up there was a mystery, but Arakhne needed their white noise-making capabilities to keep her going, or else she would have thrown herself off the edge of the mountain years ago from the dead silence. She loved when it was quiet -- but hated when it was _too_ quiet.

Luna cleared her throat and looked to Estelle.

“You passed out.”

“I gathered that.”

“You were drenched so we took your robes and Soledad dried them for you.”

Arakhne turned to Soledad and looked her up and down in the same way that the other woman did to her, and simply nodded. “Can I say ‘Thanks for not molesting me’?”

Soledad rolled her eyes and Estelle stifled a chuckle. 

“While I may appear mad, I would not dare it, as I too have limits.”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Luna began again. “Regarding this… message you received, my lady. Judging by your earlier reaction, I have reason to believe you know what it is about and thus we do not need to reiterate.”

The tightness in Arakhne’s chest returned as she closed her eyes. She remembered everything now. 

“It was not difficult to decipher at all… You would think the goddess of wisdom would use a more complicated code,” Soledad responded as she took a pistachio from a bowl and cracked it open before popping it into her mouth. She did not need to eat but it was enjoyable to _taste_ nonetheless.

“She clearly wanted to make a point,” Luna replied. “And mortals are generally not as knowledgeable about… higher level things, so it is not inappropriate on her part.”

“‘Not inappropriate’? She intends to make a spider of me again or perhaps worse. Is it necessary to argue about minutiae?”

Silence fell upon the four women as the sisters eyed each other with knitted brows. 

“Realistically, I do not believe that Athena will be able to act on this message. If she could not find you for millennia, why would now be any different?” Luna asked.

“This is the first time she has ever contacted me. I can _feel_ it, and that’s not just my paranoia.”

“So... what would you like us to do about that, then, hm?” Soledad snapped.

“I… I don’t know…” Arakhne all but whispered. “What _can_ you do? I know I agreed to make your dresses and that it will take time, but… I don’t know if I have that time.”

“All we can do is protect you… be your bodyguards, if you will. And you are quite powerful yourself, so you should not discount your own abilities,” Estelle responded with an uncharacteristic air of certainty.

Luna nodded slowly. “We will not leave your side.”


	5. The Golden Fleece

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna and Arakhne have some alone time; Estelle and Soledad disagree.

Staring up at the ceiling, Arakhne felt like her eyes were being held open with forceps. It was dark as the inside of a coal mine, and yet sleep would not come to her. She had been lying in bed for hours, and even her guests had gone to bed, Arakhne imagined. When Arakhne rolled over onto her side, she almost groaned at the sight of the twinkling mound beside her as it rose and fell with each of the other woman’s breaths.

Estelle had claimed that it was “better to be safe than sorry” and that meant that Arakhne could not even take a piss without bringing a guardian with her. Her once private sanctuary had been turned into a ghost of itself, a ruin ransacked by the elements -- but in this case, those elements came in the form of three celestial beauties. In the end, was it worse to underestimate a goddess, or to be completely unprepared for her arrival? Arakhne was not sure which would garner the harsher punishment, but she did not want to find out.

Rolling her eyes, Arakhne slid closer to Estelle and reached out a hand to where her face would be. She let her fingers gently cup the other woman’s cheek, her pulse tapping against her own neck as she did so. Estelle shifted in her sleep and Arakhne held her breath.

_ Why are you so fascinated with this woman?  _ Arakhne cursed herself as she rolled onto her back again and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes.  _ She may as well be a child… Sure acts like one… _

Dropping her hands back down to the bed so they rested on either side of her, she gazed at Estelle again before she pulled the covers away from herself and stood up, but not before draping them over Estelle’s sleeping form. 

There was a hint of a breeze in her room, she noticed, and she felt goosebumps on her skin. She remembered her state of undress and knew that digging around in the dark for something to wear would be a Sisyphean task, and so she took the blanket from the end of her bed and wrapped it around her shoulders.

She moved as quietly as she could so as to not disturb Estelle and realized that the breeze was coming from a few steps away from her. The heavy curtains blocked the door to her balcony so that no light could penetrate, but the faint wind circumvented that barrier somehow. Arakhne raised an eyebrow and approached, shoving aside the curtain so she could pass. When she stepped over the threshold of the balcony, she almost jumped.

“What are you doing here?” Arakhne whispered.

Luna seemed to be deep in thought as she leaned over the railing of the balcony and stared off into the distance, her face turned toward the full moon as if she were basking in its radiance like a sunflower drawn toward the warmth of the sun. Arakhne was not sure if it was the moon or Luna herself who emanated a pale iridium-colored glow that, if it were not for the heavy fabric of the drapes, would paint the interior of Arakhne’s room in all its splendor.

“I was simply observing the moon,” Luna replied after a few moments, her voice low as she turned to face Arakhne. “My namesake…”

Arakhne pursed her lips and drew the blanket closer to her body as a gust blew through her hair, ruffling her loose curls. Meanwhile, Luna looked unfazed by the temperature, as she was dressed only in thin robes with short sleeves, a look more suited to summer weather. And Arakhne noticed that Luna had changed her hair: she had gone from having a mane of curls that reminded Arakhne of a lion, to having two tight braids adorned with gold ornaments that snaked down from her crown to just past her breasts. Arakhne could not pull her eyes away from Luna’s form.

“You are afraid that Athena will find you, and that we will not be able to fight her off. That is why you cannot sleep.”

Flinching, Arakhne opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it as she lowered her gaze. Luna moved closer to her, sliding along the balcony railing until they were only one step apart. She stood up straight and turned to face the other woman.

“There is no reason to feel shame. The gods are capable of wickedness and have no reservations about behaving in the same manner as beasts.”

Swallowing loudly, Arakhne looked into Luna’s eyes. There was no judgement in those shining dark orbs, only what Arakhne would call… understanding? Luna raised her hand and let her fingers rest below the other woman’s chin, her eyebrows contorting as she seemed to take on the emotion from Arakhne’s body.

A tear threatened to fall, but Arakhne wiped it away with the corner of her blanket, knowing that if she broke down now she would not be able to stop. She could not humiliate herself in front of Luna in that way again.

Luna brought her other hand to Arakhne’s face and wiped her lower eyelid with her thumb, looking like she would weep, too. As they gazed at each other, all Luna could think to do at this point was to press her lips to Arakhne’s and to taste the salt on her tongue and pull the fear out of her.

Trembling, Arakhne dropped the blanket she had cocooned herself in and seemed to forget the cold of the night air. She placed both hands on each side of Luna’s face and kissed the other woman back, rivulets of salt dripping down her chin. Luna’s arms wrapped around Arakhne’s waist and pulled her closer in an attempt to warm her feverish body. 

They pulled away from each other for a moment, panting and fluttering their eyelids closed, both speechless for a moment. 

Arakhne cleared her throat, and refused to meet Luna’s eyes when she spoke:

“I don’t want to think about any of this. I just want to forget. Please…” Arakhne said, voice hoarse. “I- please… help me not think about this anymore…”

As Arakhne stood there before her, disheveled and naked and looking as beautiful and devastating as a forest fire battling a hurricane to see which would survive to continue its destruction, Luna could only marvel. This was a woman who would not hesitate to fight who, now, asked only for her help. Luna knew she could not refuse. 

She kissed Arakhne’s willing lips again, this time pushing her back gently against the wall as the other woman gripped at her shoulders, digging her nails into Luna’s skin and leaving behind crescent moons that looked entirely natural on her. Sighing into her mouth, Arakhne did not complain when Luna’s hands caressed her body, making her twitch from the feather-light touches that tickled her sides.

Head lolling to the side, Arakhne felt Luna’s lips sucking against the heat of her exposed neck and she let out a moan, completely forgetting that she no longer lived on her own. Luna’s mouth traveled down from her neck to her chest, and when the other woman flicked her tongue against one of Arakhne’s pierced nipples, she almost burst. One of Luna’s hands moved down between her legs, where Arakhne already felt wet and hot and dripping after only a few minutes. She shuddered as Luna bit down on her nipple just enough to elicit a gasp, while simultaneously rubbing her fingers against Arakhne’s heat. 

Her legs trembled as Luna took both of her wrists and pinned them above her head, holding Arakhne in place. Not that Arakhne minded -- nor did she intend to go anywhere as Luna slid her fingers inside her and made her see the stars behind her eyelids that glowed in the same way the night sky did -- and the way Estelle did.

Both women were so enthralled by each other’s touch that they did not hear the footsteps approaching the balcony, as Arakhne’s moans spilled from her like a prayer masquerading as a staccato, as she was unable to form coherent sentences or even words at that moment.

Neither of them heard the door to the balcony burst open as Estelle, curly hair wrapped in a disheveled looking scarf, came to investigate the source of the noise that had woken her from her slumber. 

“Sister?!” 

The word hung in the air like a grenade from which she had just pulled the pin.

Estelle simply stood frozen in place, unable to take her eyes away from the scene in front of her. After a few seconds had passed, Estelle began shaking, looking as if her body would no longer be able to support her.

It took Luna some time to realize what was happening, and as soon as she was aware, she all but leapt away from Arakhne, leaving the other woman struggling to hold herself up against the wall. Estelle, who had been unable to move from her spot, began crying before she ran back into the palace and down the corridor.

\--------------------

“Do any of you lot know why the Golden Fleece was so prized among the ancients?” Arakhne asked the trio as she sat at the bench before her loom with her back to it. She shook out the Fleece, which shone in the light in a way no earthly object should, and kicked up a cloud of dust, which caused her to cough a few times. 

“What a silly question. Everyone knows humans cannot keep their hands off anything golden and magical,” Soledad quipped, rolling her eyes.

Luna rubbed her chin as she approached Arakhne, acting as if the events of last night had not transpired, and the other woman bit her lip as she covered her mouth and looked away. Soledad smirked at Estelle as they, too, huddled around the object draped over Arakhne’s lap that resembled a full, curly fur coat worth more than anything one could find on Earth. All Estelle could do was narrow her eyes in her sister’s direction and shove her with her elbow as Soledad simply threw her head back in glee.

“There must be more to this... But I must also ask, how did you come upon it?” Luna asked, sitting down next to Arakhne and taking one of the parts of the Fleece in her hands. “Last I remember it was the property of the Thessalonians. May I?”

Arakhne tensed and nodded as Luna leaned closer to her, their hands brushing against each other as Luna seemed to pay no mind to the woman beside her, instead focusing all of her attention to the golden strands of wool. 

“The Thessalonians had it for a while but then somehow it ended up in the hands of Aphrodite, who thought it would be hilarious to give it to me as payment for creating a gown for her to wear when she attended one of Dionysos’s famous festivities,” Arakhne replied, looking out the window over her shoulder. “I suppose it isn’t unusual considering she and Athena haven’t been on good terms since the war.”

“Ah, yes. Troy.”

“That’s the one.”

Meanwhile, Estelle looked on with a frown. “What a shame they had to kill this poor creature for this Fleece…”

“Then why is it not called the Golden Hide instead?” Soledad teased.

Gritting her teeth, Arakhne glared up at the other woman. “Would you shut up? Estelle is right! It may have been a few thousand years ago but this ram didn’t need to die when they could easily have shorn the wool. Do you think I like having its lifeless eye sockets staring up at me?”

Soledad raised her hands up on either side of her head. “I was simply trying to provide some levity! Are you incapable of taking a joke?”

“You are  _ literally  _ the most unbearable person I’ve ever met in my life!” Arakhne shrieked, face red from either rage or embarrassment or both, as she threw the Fleece squarely at Soledad’s face.

Before Arakhne could do any further damage, Luna stood between the two women as Soledad lunged toward Arakhne, and Estelle restrained her sister from doing something she would later regret.

“Please leave, sister,” Luna commanded in a voice reminiscent of a parent finding out their child had failed all of their courses in school. “This is not a request.”

“I would find it incredibly humiliating to have to rely on others to stop me from having a temper tantrum,” Estelle muttered to Soledad as she pulled her out of Arakhne’s room. She sighed. “Being your sister is exhausting. Are you even capable of not causing trouble? Do you enjoy it? I never understood that about you.”

Soledad opened her mouth to respond, eyes aglow. But before she could, Estelle cut her off.

“Do not come back until you learn to behave,” Estelle all but whispered, swallowing as tears pooled at the corners of her eyes. “And I believe an apology is in order. Goodbye, sister.”

With that, Estelle slammed the door shut in Soledad’s face and locked it.


	6. A Goddess Scorned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arakhne tries to work; Luna and Estelle have a heart to heart; Soledad throws a tantrum.

“Who in the Three Realms does she think she is?!” Soledad said aloud as the door locked before her.

She banged her fists against it, groaning when it did not budge. Cursing, she went to grasp the handle in an attempt to pry open the door but as soon as her fingers touched it, a cool jolt of electricity shot up her arm and sent her tumbling against the wall behind her.

“You will pay for this, Estelle!” 

When she received no response, Soledad groaned at the top of her lungs and threw her arms into the air, releasing a burst of flames from her palms and toasting some of the tassels that hung from the chandelier above her. She stormed away, her skirts flowing behind her as she kicked aside one of the dress forms that littered the corridor. 

The  _ thud  _ of the dress form hitting the floor left Soledad unsatisfied, and she kicked another, her lip twitching upward as she did. Her eyes began to glow as she began knocking over the dress forms, adorned with finely crafted robes and dresses, and mannequins and pulled the tapestry from the wall before her. It was as if her body moved on its own accord, a marionette piloted by a being who wanted nothing more than for her to destroy everything that was in her path. She did not pay any mind to a few mice from the kitchen that had come to see the commotion that Soledad was causing. The mice looked up at her with wide eyes, their little paws covering their mouths.

After she had exhausted herself with ensuring all the garments and the tapestry were knocked over and in a mound on the marble floor, Soledad admired her handiwork as she stroked her chin. Something was missing.

_ Ah! _

Chuckling, Soledad climbed onto the massive pile she had made and without any further thought, shot a flamethrower from her hands directly onto about a hundred of Arakhne’s prized works -- the ones she had put millions of hours of labor into.

“That will teach you not to be such an insufferable twat…”

Once the inferno had grown to Soledad’s desired proportions, she leaped down back to the floor and wiped her hands against each other. For a moment, she could only stare as the flames danced their chaotic dance, becoming hypnotized. From within the blaze, the garments began to twinkle, the rhinestones and precious metals woven into them making them shimmer like the inside of a supernova. 

Soledad heard a loud, almost panicked squeak from beside her and she snapped her head to the side to where Rhode in her mouse apron stood, gesturing at her and then at the fire she had made, her tiny eyebrows scrunched together. As Soledad turned back to watch what she had done, the smirk she had been wearing fell away. 

She looked down at her hands, and then back at the sparkling mound of burning clothes.

“What is wrong with me…?” 

Realization dawned on Soledad’s face and she could feel the judging expressions of the mice sticking to her. In that moment, she did the only thing she could think of doing.

“Luna!” She cried, sprinting back down the corridor as smoke billowed behind her.

\--------------------

“How is it that you two are the reasonable ones but she’s supposed to be the oldest of the three of you?” Arakhne asked, still flushed and shaking as she sat at the bench to her loom.

Estelle shrugged and leaned against one of the shelves, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared out the window while letting her eyes wander back and forth between Arakhne and what was outside.

“No one is entirely sure why she is so… impulsive. Even millennia of anger management did not help her,” Luna replied, returning to Arakhne’s side.

With what could only be described as a giggle, Arakhne took the Fleece in her lap again, and Estelle raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“This Fleece can be used to absorb energy, that’s why it was so coveted. In order to make your dresses, we’ll need to leave the Fleece out to absorb the sun, moon, and star energy so I can work with it,” Arakhne explained.

As Luna nodded, Arakhne folded the Fleece in thirds and then began ripping one of the portions, eliciting gasps from Luna and Estelle.

“Why are you ripping this?!” Luna exclaimed, as Estelle looked on while making no move to come closer to the other women.

“Relax, I know what I’m doing. I need to rip it into three pieces because if I just use the same Fleece for each material, it’ll entirely mess things up. Moonlight and sunshine mixed together will be a disaster. I don’t need to risk that.”

Once Arakhne had torn the hide into neat pieces, she took one of them and draped it in front of the window where the sun shone through. She folded the other two pieces and placed them on the shelf that Estelle leaned again. As she turned toward the other woman, she looked at her face and saw her narrowing her eyes at Luna, who seemed oblivious to her sister’s action.

Arakhne sighed, blushing as she took a notebook full of parchment and some pencils from one of the drawers in her desk.

“Estelle, come join us,” Luna said, looking up at her sister as Estelle looked back out the window as if she had not heard what Luna had said to her.

“Did you hear what I had said to you a moment ago?” Luna asked, eyebrows knitted together. Arakhne opened one of the notebooks and began to sketch a design. “Why are you behaving this way?”

Continuing her wordless protest, Estelle turned her gaze to Arakhne, who was already focusing intensely on her sketch. After a moment of drawing, Arakhne looked up and placed her pencil back down. “Before I do anything else, I need your measurements.”

With a snap of Arakhne’s fingers, three mice appeared in the middle of the room wearing smocks with almost microscopic pockets, with two carrying a tape measure from each end, and the third with a notebook and pencil in its paws. 

“Since you’re all basically the same size, I’ll just measure Estelle and proceed from there,” Arakhne said, as the mice began to wrap the tape measure around Estelle’s waist.

As the two mice measured, they would squeak to the third, who would then record the values. Once they had finished, and once Estelle had given all three of them kisses, pats on the head, and some sunflower seeds as treats, they left the piece of paper with the measurements on Arakhne’s desk and then promptly left, chattering happily amongst each other while they nibbled away. Estelle smiled at them as they scurried away and Arakhne found her gaze lingering on Estelle as she felt her own mouth form a small smile of its own. The three women were alone once more. Arakhne returned to her sketches with the measurements in hand.

“Sister… would you please say  _ something _ ? Is this charade not exhausting?” 

This time Estelle stared into Luna’s eyes, and once again, said nothing.

“Are you really that oblivious?” Arakhne asked, voice sharp, but her eyes remained fixed on her work as her face reddened. She pressed her pencil down into the parchment hard, breaking the tip clean off.

“In what sense?” said Luna, absently reaching out and tucking a stray piece of Arakhne’s wild and wavy hair behind her ear.

“Stop that,” Arakhne replied, swatting away Luna’s hand. “You know what I mean.”

Looking on from the other side of the room, Estelle covered her mouth with her hand, hiding the smile that she tried to bite back to no avail. 

“I truly do not.”

“Estelle’s pissed off at you. Do you think there’s something you may have done recently to make her upset? I’m really spoon-feeding you here. I thought you were a grown-up with a brain. You’re way too old for this.”

“... Oh.”

“‘ _ Oh’ _ is right. Now go talk to each other and leave me be if you want these dresses to ever get made.”

Frozen in place like she had just happened upon a Gorgon, Estelle stood there with wide eyes darting back and forth. If she had a heart, it would be threatening to fly out of her chest and back to Purgatory where it resided. She began to twinkle like the rolling waves of the ocean refracting the light of the sun at midday.

Luna frowned as she approached her sister. She extended her arms as if to embrace her. “My poor little Estelle… What can I do to make things up to you? I will do whatever it takes, all I ask is for your forgiveness.”

Crossing her arms again, Estelle took a step back as she resisted the urge to show her sister her tears again. 

“Do you believe all is forgiven simply because you speak to me in that manner? ‘ _ Poor little Estelle _ ’... Am I not a woman as you are? Our difference in age is not so great to warrant your patronizing words, sister. Do you truly know how you have hurt me? Or do you say sweet words with the hope I will forget?” Estelle said, her voice wavering. She sniffled and wiped the tear that slipped away from her against her will while she gazed past her sister at Arakhne’s figure, as the other woman hunched over her notebook, hard at work.

“I…” Luna sighed, closing her eyes and withdrawing her arms, “simply did my duty. How can I deny someone who asks for my help?”

“Ah, yes.  _ Help, _ ” Estelle almost spat, her voice hoarse. “In that case you took no pleasure in it?”

Mouth hanging open, Luna used all her willpower not to slap her sister in that moment. She could feel her body begin to vibrate and glow. It was even worse that she could not respond to the accusation, because to deny that she had gained pleasure from  _ Arakhne’s  _ pleasure would be a lie. 

“If Soledad saw us quarreling over a woman in this manner, surely she would laugh at us for the rest of eternity,” Luna said instead.

“We are not discussing Soledad. For once, she has no part in this.”

Pursing her lips, Luna massaged her temples. “Why am I to blame for your inability to voice your own feelings, then, sister? I cannot read your mind. And was our goal,” Luna added, looking over her shoulder before lowering her voice, “not to fall in love with  _ her,  _ but for her to fall in love with one of us? It was never a competition between the three of us. We are all on the same side.”

“Please do not attempt to rationalize my feelings away,  _ sister.  _ You are being your typical self, attempting to absolve yourself of any responsibility once again.”

“Fine. You are free to feel as you wish,” Luna replied, closing her eyes so Estelle would not notice her rolling them behind her eyelids. “But I will not apologize for what I have done. You would do well to learn that pleasures of the flesh often mean little. Accept it, and move on.”

“I will remember that advice for when I do something to hurt your feelings and you ask for an apology and understanding. Your empathy for me only extends so far as I do not confront you, is that it? In that case, you can have her. I hope you will both be very happy together. How can I despair when after our coronations, I will not see either of you ever again?” Estelle said, her voice soft like a rose’s petals, with an edge that showed its thorns.

Luna knew how venomous her sister could be when she felt hurt, and that she was usually capable of unimaginable kindness but in situations like these, she unleashed unimaginable cruelty. What hurt her the most was the fact that while she knew Estelle simply wanted her to understand and wanted some sort of reaction from her, she did not know how much of what she said was how she truly felt. Luna was used to this behavior, but that dull thud in the middle of her chest would not fade so easily.

“ _ Sister.  _ I know you do not mean what you say,” Luna replied, her low voice refusing to betray the storm brewing within her. “If you truly care for her, I will not pursue her further.”

Blinking, Estelle reddened once again. “Really?”

“I do not say this nearly enough, but I love you and Soledad far more than I could ever love anyone else. It is not a question. But it hurts me to think that you believe I would value anyone else above my sisters,” Luna said, gazing off at Arakhne as she spoke.

Estelle hung her head and sighed as tears flowed down her cheeks and darkened the front of her robes. “Thank you, sister. I should not have been so cruel to you.”

“It was necessary. I know I can be… thick, at times, and I did not want to realize how much I had truly hurt you. Come here,” Luna extended her arms and motioned for her sister to embrace her, and this time Estelle accepted the gesture, wrapping her arms around her sister’s waist and burying her wet face in Luna’s neck.

Patting Estelle’s head, Luna kissed her sister on the forehead as she cried. 

Their moment of peace and silence was just that -- a moment. A muffled  _ “Luna! _ ” startled them both back into reality, and accompanied with that came the  _ pitter patter  _ of footsteps that grew louder and more hurried as they came closer to the room.

“Luna! For the love of Father, would you please let me in?!” Soledad yelled as she banged on the door again, her voice shaking. “I was out of line earlier! But… I have made a huge mistake. Open up!”

“What have you done now?” Luna asked with a small chuckle as she removed the enchantment from the door’s handle and allowed her sister back into the room.

The cloud of smoke that filled the corridor invaded the room like a swarm of locusts, and Luna’s face fell. 

“Arakhne…” Soledad said as she marched into the room, snapping the other woman away from her work.

“Can’t you see I’m busy?”

Soledad’s body shook as she knelt down on one knee, almost collapsing as she took one of Arakhne’s hands in both of her own. 

“I am so sorry…”


	7. Immolation's Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soledad makes a promise; Arakhne believes her.

“What have you done?” Arakhne asked as she pulled her hand away from Soledad’s grasp. Seeing the oppressive black cloud of smoke hurtling into the room, her face hardened into a stony scowl. “Did you set my palace on fire?”

“Er… not exactly,” Soledad replied, waving her hands in front of her. 

“It’s either on fire or it’s not.”

Luna had already taken Estelle by the wrist and pulled her down the corridor to investigate. Arakhne grabbed a scarf from a pile of discarded pieces she had made ages ago and wrapped it around her face, holding her breath as she stepped out of her room to brave the chaos that Soledad had created; Soledad followed close behind.

They arrived at the scene of the crime to see Estelle scrambling about the inferno, pulling out garments from within and tossing them away as Luna stood with her arms outstretched before her, pummeling the flaming mound with a cool gush of water. 

As soon as Arakhne saw the carnage, she let out an inhuman wail, like a mother who had just witnessed her children die in front of her, set alight as a cruel act of vengeance. They were her favorite children, each with their own personality, their own sparkle, something that made them like gemstones -- no matter what was done to them, they all had an essence unique to only them. She had given each of them a part of her, ripped her soul into tiny fragments and imparted each of these garments with that piece, nurtured them with her own hands. And now they were dying, never to shine the same way again, rendered ash and dust and waste, because she had made the mistake of letting these three women into her home against her own better judgment. Arakhne cursed herself for thinking that this time would be different. Trusting was the worst mistake she had ever made, and she had also made the mistake of having hubris. 

She fell to her knees, wailing again as she dragged herself across the blackened marble floor toward the blaze, her scarf falling away from her mouth, which allowed smoke to fill her lungs. Arakhne hacked away as her breathing became more difficult, and Soledad ran after her to pull her back to safety. Pushing her away, Arakhne continued to struggle to reach the fire, her movements becoming more desperate over time.

It only took a few moments for Arakhne to inhale enough smoke that she fell unconscious, collapsing beside the inferno that Luna was trying to put out with great difficulty. Soledad scrambled over to where Arakhne lay, scooping her up in her arms and carrying her away toward the terrace situated on the side of the mountain. At least there she would be able to get some fresh air.

Sighing, Soledad pushed the door open to the terrace overlooking a small plot of soil used for growing vegetables and stepped out into the cool air. She saw the mice and birds and frogs all cowering together below, and some of the mice fixed Soledad with their beady stares, looking less than pleased with her presence; they would much rather chew her fingers off, she reckoned.

_ I would deserve it…  _ she thought, as she took the scarf from around Arakhne’s neck and used it to cover the surface of the lone bench on the terrace. Soledad sat down with Arakhne’s limp body draped across her lap and then positioned her so that her head was nestled comfortably on Soledad’s thighs. 

“Wake up…” Soledad muttered as she smacked Arakhne’s cheek with her hand gently. She leaned down to listen to the other woman’s breathing, just in case, then smacked her again and jostled her while speaking much louder. “You are clearly not dead. Wake up!”

After a few more shakes from Soledad, Arakhne coughed several times and stirred. Soledad held her steady on her lap.

“I’m sure you would have been happy if I had died,” Arakhne said hoarsely, her voice weak. She kept her eyes closed.

“You may annoy me but I would not wish death upon you,” Soledad responded as-a-matter-of-factly. She frowned and brushed the hair from Arakhne’s face.

Arakhne furrowed her brows but made no move to swat Soledad’s hand away. 

“Why did you set all my clothes on fire?” Arakhne asked, and Soledad could feel her body become tense against her. “I worked hard on them, you know. Have  _ you  _ ever worked so hard on something you… put your heart and soul into it?” She finished off her thought with a chorus of coughs. 

Soledad stared off into the endless sky and scratched her head. “I may not seem like such an artistic soul, or like I am capable of sitting down for more than five minutes, but… I do enjoy painting, and I know how much time and frustration goes into making art… Which is why, as soon as I saw what I had done, I knew it was highly likely to be in the top five list of ‘worst things Soledad has done’.”

“Good for you,” Arakhne croaked. “You still didn’t tell me why you did it.”

Bristling, Soledad looked back down at Arakhne’s face. The other woman opened her eyes so they were just like slits peering up at her. 

“To put it simply, you annoyed me. And even worse, Estelle seems fond of you to the point where she has become your lapdog. I am embarrassed for her truthfully.” 

Opening her eyes fully, Arakhne looked up at Soledad before she attempted to pull herself up into a sitting position, face tinged pink. “You make no sense.”

Shrugging, Soledad could only stare at Arakhne while the other woman looked away. Arakhne coughed again, and Soledad patted her on the back. 

“You’re lucky I’m in this state,” Arakhne said, “or else I would have knocked you down already for what you’ve done.”

“I admire your ability to continue to make threats even when you cannot follow through with them,” Soledad replied with a soft smile that did not reach her eyes. She looked down at her own hands. “But I truly am sorry. I wish I had more self-control.”

“As far as I’m concerned, your apology means nothing to me. I may as well wipe my ass with it.”

Gritting her teeth, Soledad stood up.

“If you will not accept my apology, what can I do to make it up to you, then?! No wonder you are a lonely spinster up in this palace with no family. How could anyone  _ ever  _ love someone like you?! My sisters are  _ delusional  _ if they find  _ anything  _ redeeming about you!” Soledad cried, her face glowing red.

“Then what’s your excuse?” 

Soledad stopped in her tracks.

“What do you mean?”

“You care an awful lot about this,” Arakhne replied. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous, too. But you’re trying to hide it by slandering me instead. Are you a toddler? Maybe next time don’t set my shit on fire. You’re way too easy to read.”

Arakhne could not hide the chuckle that fell from her lips before she erupted into a coughing fit again. Soledad could only widen her eyes.

“What your sisters have that you lack is the ability to grow the fuck up instead of acting like a child because the girl they like doesn’t like them back. And maybe she would like you back if you weren’t such an emotionally stunted mess.”

“H-hey! I am not  _ that  _ emotionally stunted!” was all Soledad could muster in response, and all Arakhne could do was laugh. 

“It’s a shame really because you are my type,” Arakhne said as she stretched while eyeing Soledad up and down.

Rolling her eyes, Soledad dug her fingers into her hair and leaned over with her elbows on her knees. This time, she spoke slowly, each work punctuated by her biting back her impulses. “What can I do to make things up to you?”

“So it’s fine for you to stare at me like I’m a piece of meat, but when I do it to you it’s uncomfortable, right?” Arakhne replied. “And truthfully, I don’t want anything from you aside from you just acting  _ normal,  _ perhaps?”

“That is all? I can do that.”

Arakhne cringed. “That sounds… unlikely. And if it was that easy we wouldn’t be in this mess after you tried burning all my prized garments. Most of them are irreparably damaged.”

“What if I can figure out a way to fix them so they look good as new?”

“You really don’t have to… At this point you’ll probably do more damage.”

“I will do it, I will do it. Even if it is only for my own conscience. I promise I will find a way.”

“All right…” Arakhne said with a small smile playing at her lips. 

There was something about Soledad’s earnestness that she almost found…  _ endearing.  _ This woman, who seemed to live to annoy her, who was a walking vial of chaos, nonetheless still had the power to pull Arakhne toward her like electrons to the nucleus of the atom. No one had ever made a promise to her before.

“Do not fret. One thing I can be certain of is that I do not make promises for the sake of saying pretty words. I will not, as you would say, ‘fuck it up’.” 

“Noted.” Against her better judgment, Arakhne believed her.

Chuckling and feeling like she was being drawn toward the sun again, Arakhne could sense herself becoming more at ease. There was a childish sense of wonder and innocence in Soledad’s eyes when she looked at Arakhne, free of malice, like she was discovering the carnival for the first time. Something about her made Arakhne want to kiss her.

She pressed her lips against Soledad’s, hesitating as the other woman froze for a moment. There was no rational reason she could think of for her to want this, but regardless, Arakhne allowed Soledad to pull her onto her lap. This time the kiss felt more like sunlight than a fire, and Arakhne was content to simply allow Soledad to hold her as she relaxed. There was no urgency, more of a contemplation. The animosity sloughed off her body, freeing her. She felt like she could float away to join the clouds in the sky.

When Arakhne pulled away to breathe, Soledad smiled. The other woman made no move to vacate her lap, and Soledad was in no hurry to move her away, either. Arakhne leaned the side of her head against the other woman’s shoulder and the two simply enjoyed each other’s presence like a pair of lions basking in the sunlight.

The moment was short-lived, however, as the doors to the terrace flung open hard enough to bang against the walls and echo through the sky. Through the doorway came the final wisps of smoke, along with Estelle and Luna, as if they were exiting the pits of Tartarus.

“Lovely to see you both lounging about while we clean up our dear sister’s mess,” Luna said, her voice measured, but simultaneously hiding the snarl she wanted to unleash.

Estelle could only frown at the scene before her, losing any clever quip she had prepared as it tumbled from her tongue and into the recesses of her mind. She looked out toward the clouds instead.

“We would like to speak with Soledad alone.”


	8. The Poison of Eros

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arakhne mourns her children; the triplets have a confessional.

As soon as Soledad’s warmth left her side and Arakhne was left alone, she felt her spirits come crumbling down back to her mountain, an avalanche she did not know to expect. She cursed herself, digging the heels of her hands into her eye sockets, the warmth of Soledad’s lips lingering like oil fueling her rage. 

“How could I let her off the hook so easily?! I must have gotten high on fumes or something…” 

Kicking her feet against the bench hard, Arakhne groaned. She could not tell if she was more angry at Soledad for being so damn earnest or at herself for believing her sweet words. 

“I’m so stupid… These three-“ she flushed a light pink; despite what had happened, and how much they had disrupted her lifestyle as the harbingers of chaos, she could not bring herself to call them names even when alone. “They’ll be the end of me.”

_ This wouldn’t have been so hard if you weren’t so easily manipulated by your eyes…  _ the voice in her head scolded her.  _ You could never resist beauty. Isn’t that how you fucked your life up from the beginning? _

“Shut up…” she muttered to herself.

In that moment she listened to the wind whistle through the sky as it lifted her hair in all directions. Her body had become a furnace and so she welcomed the coolness against her brown skin, not minding the goosebumps that grew in its wake like seedlings just before they break through the soil. She hugged her knees to her chest and sighed.

For the first time in a while, Arakhne was alone. And for the first time in a while, she felt the weight of that loneliness on her back, and she thought of Atlas holding up the heavens, and the turtle that bore the earth on its shell. Through the window overlooking the terrace, Arakhne could see the faint dark outlines of the three sisters as they gesticulated to one another. Whatever they were discussing was something she did not want to get involved in. 

Arakhne’s palace exhaled the remnants of the smoke from within as if clearing its lungs. With each gust of wind, more of the now white smoke glided away to join the clouds, becoming one with their surroundings. As Arakhne sat and watched nothing and everything happen around her, she thought back to the scene of devastation she had witnessed not long ago. 

_ If only I had known sooner, if only I had paid attention…  _ Arakhne thought, clenching her fists.  _ I was so concerned with my designs that I didn’t smell the smoke… Was it worth it? _

She thought of the days and nights she spent hunched over her loom, weaving enough fabric to cover the area of her mountain a thousand times. How her muscles would ache, her tendons straining against her skin with each movement until she felt her limbs ready to slough off her torso and onto her marble floor like a hermit crab molting its exoskeleton. How her eyes burned from the dry air in her palace and from being open for far more hours than they deserved to be, each blink and roll useless in combating the sensation. And how her fingers began to shake and bleed, rubbed raw from the friction of running through threads of all materials, celestial and earthly. Her body, despite appearing taut and young and beautiful, creaked with age and from overwork.

_ Was it worth it?  _ she asked herself again, more desperate this time.

Opening and closing her fist, Arakhne envisioned the corridor in her palace and how it looked before when it was populated by the garments she had created. They ranged in colors and shades and silhouettes, with some long and flowing in a way that reminded one of a waterfall, and others with sharper, more geometric construction. Arakhne loved to see what she could do with different types of fabric, and each completed piece of work told its own story of how she felt at that given time. 

Even the dress she crafted during a particular manic episode when she did not sleep for three days had been lost. By the end she had combined colors and textures without regard for whether they would look suitable together or not, and thus she was left with a garment resembling something a child had drawn, which simultaneously still looked like something Aphrodite would wear with pride. But she could not call that one her favorite, as each dress held something special, and like any mother, to choose favorites would be an unthinkable task. Now she felt as if hundreds of lives had been wiped from existence.

Her pulse began to rise and she began to think with much more clarity. There was no way anyone else could even come close to Arakhne’s technical and artistic vision -- not even Athena. 

Arakhne cracked her knuckles and wiped her face in her robes as she stood from the bench. She was done feeling sorry for herself; it would not bring her children back.

Marching toward the door to the terrace, Arakhne jumped when Estelle barreled out toward her.

\--------------------

“My patience for you may as well have gone into those flames you started. I have had enough of your shenanigans.”

Soledad stared at Luna with furrowed eyebrows, her mouth hanging open in a small “o”. Estelle covered her mouth, biting back a laugh. And while Estelle tried to conduct herself with dignity, she still could not help the small pang of pleasure she felt when one of her sisters (usually Soledad) was about to be told off. 

“Father and mother have always been too easy on you,” Luna began, striding toward her sister. “Perhaps if they had disciplined you more we would not be in this situation. And perhaps I would not have to do their job for them. You are lucky no one was killed.”

Bristling, Soledad stood her ground as her sister approached, jutting her chin out at her and eyeing her. “You know what happens when people annoy me. I do not need another lecture from you, as you truly have no authority over me. And as I already spoke with the lady of the palace, there is no need for any further discussion on the matter.”

“You promised her something,” Luna said, the evenness of her voice betrayed by the waver that a stranger would not be able to pick up on. But Soledad knew better.

“No, you  _ charmed  _ her with that power of yours,” Estelle corrected as she stepped forward and straightened her back.

“How difficult could it be for me to fix up some clothes?” Soledad replied, rolling her eyes at her sisters. Her haughtiness began to crumble at the same speed with which it had arrived.

“ _ That  _ was what you promised her? Are you mad?” Luna asked, and all she could do was rub the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “Do you have any idea how long it takes to craft such works?! It will take you an eternity and even that will not be enough. This is not like your paintings, where you can throw some color on a canvas and be done.”

“Cloth and paint are not such different tools. But sister, you do not know the first thing about sewing, either,” said Estelle. “I could teach you. But what reason would I have to help you after you caused such chaos for this woman who did nothing but be a gracious host for us?!”

“A gracious host, you say? This is the same woman who would have me thrown from the heavens upon our first meeting, lest you forget. She wants nothing but to be rid of us,” Soledad said with a smirk.

“And that was as a result of your own doing, as you chose to provoke her. Much the same as you did now,” Luna sighed, but smiled nonetheless. “There is no sense in pretending that she has not infatuated the three of us, however. As much as you protest, dearest Soledad, I question, between you and Estelle, who has allowed the strike of Eros’s arrow to warm her heart the most?”

Estelle froze, caught between absorbing the information she had just learned a moment ago and wanting to deny that any of this was true. 

“Oh, Luna, do not act as if you too have not been struck by Eros’s arrow; your golden heart can be seen across the skies,” Soledad teased her sister, her face breaking into a grin.

“N-no!” Luna all but stammered, her composure slipping. She caught her mask and reattached it, clearing her throat. “I agreed that I would no longer pursue Arakhne. I love you both too much to fight over a woman.”

“Ah yes, you must always be the martyr. If you were human they would call you Joan of Arc,” Soledad quipped. “Why are you unable to admit that you do not truly intend to stop pursuing her? You know Estelle is naïve and will believe your lies, but I am not Estelle.”

It was Estelle’s turn to bristle at her sisters. 

“You two are speaking of nonsense now!” Estelle cried, waving her hands as tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. “If I must hear once more about how much of an  _ infant  _ I am, perhaps I will start another fire myself!”

Soledad and Luna went quiet and looked at Estelle, frowning. 

“Estelle…” Luna whispered, reaching out a hand and resting it on her sister’s shoulder. 

Smacking Luna’s hand away, Estelle huffed. “I do not need your pity. And who knows where that hand has been?”

Letting out a loud guffaw, Soledad could not stop herself from keeling over in laughter and praising Estelle for constructing an insult worthy of memorialization by being engraved into a column, where it would stay even when exposed to the rains and winds of time. Luna could only stare with wide eyes, resembling a small rabbit that had just watched the flower it pursued be eaten by another.

“And you!” Estelle shouted, pointing to Soledad in turn. “Good luck with your impossible task! If I am such a child, then based on your mentality you may as well be a fetus!”

Thinking her final words were the cleverest ever uttered and with tears streaming down her face, Estelle stormed out of the room to the terrace. 

“She can be so cruel…” Luna muttered, watching the door swing closed.

“Her last attempt was weak, I would not rate it higher than a six of ten,” Soledad replied, scratching her head. 

Exhaling, Luna sat down and motioned to Soledad to do the same. Soledad groaned, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“What you said about me being dishonest, though… I did not want to believe it, and I knew speaking about this around Estelle would not be productive considering she and I had just argued before your little… escapade. But I think you are right.”

Raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips, Soledad rubbed her chin in thought. “Wow, the Almighty Luna admits that I am correct, for once? What an honor!”

“Would you stop… I am being serious.”

“I know, I know,” Soledad patted Luna’s hand with her own. “The only reason this is even an issue at all is because Estelle is so prone to insecurity. Otherwise I have no qualms at all for Arakhne to come and go between us as she pleases. You know I have no desire to possess another especially given I do not want to be possessed myself. Alas, how  _ can _ you possess the sun?”

“But she has always been that way. I fear she would be difficult to change so drastically.”

“And I have been as I am, yet it seems I must change, and so I will. We are not immutable. I know this has no place coming from my own lips but if she wants us to treat her as an equal, she must behave as such.”

Luna gazed out the window past the terrace to the dandelion clouds, her lips curling upward against her own will. She rested her head in her hand. “How do you expect to fix all of this damage you caused, sister?”

“I will figure something out. Leave it to me. After all, I cannot have you always cleaning up after me. You may have done mother and father’s jobs but you are not them. Perhaps you will be able to stop being so uptight as well, and focus on other tasks,” Soledad said with a chuckle. 

Tapping the fingers on her other hand against the table in rapid succession, Luna eyed her sister. “Are you sure? I can enlist Estelle to help you, once she calms down she will be a bit more willing.”

“Relax and leave her be. I can ask the mice for help, but I am sure that at this point they hate me,” Soledad replied, holding Luna’s hand in her own to stop the tapping. Luna said nothing as her sister rose for her seat and padded down the corridor. 

Soledad stood before the pile of wet and charred garments, muttering to herself under her breath about how she should be excited about the nightmare of bringing Arakhne’s children back to life.


	9. A Labyrinth of Coal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arakhne and Estelle enjoy each other's company; Soledad has a realization.

A _thump_ and a yelp echoed across the terrace as Estelle ran head-first into Arakhne, sending them both tumbling to the bricks below in a heap and scraping knees and elbows on the way down.

“What the-“ 

Arakhne’s head snapped back against the ground fast, and if it were not for her mane or curly hair for protection, she would have cracked it clean open and bled dry. This did not stop the rest of her from bruising, however, and she groaned as she felt the stiffness with each new movement while she tried to spit the hair from Estelle’s own head from her mouth. The other woman lay atop her, scrambling to figure out what had just happened.

“My apologies!”

Estelle gathered her tightly coiled locks from Arakhne’s face and looked down at her, sensing her own body beginning to twinkle against her will. One of her palms had ended up clamped down upon Arakhne’s wrist, holding her firmly against the cold brick as the other woman squirmed without making a real effort to remove herself from the situation. Arakhne looked off into the distance as she pulled her thighs together, her face burning and traveling down the rest of her body to between her legs. 

_For fuck’s sake…_ she cursed herself, wondering why she kept finding herself in these sorts of situations recently. But for some reason, she could not find it in her to complain aloud.

“Are you all right?” Estelle asked, her voice soft and hoarse as if her throat were made of straw. A stray tear dripped from her eye to Arakhne’s cheek as she stared at her, and she watched the droplet disappear behind the other woman’s neck as it made its journey back to the earth. 

“I should ask you the same question,” Arakhne replied with a groan. “What happened?”

Sighing, Estelle opened her mouth to reply before she heaved and felt another wave of sadness wash over her. All she could do was bury her face in Arakhne’s chest as she cried again. This time, without saying a word, Arakhne wrapped her arm around Estelle’s back, rubbing circles on her skin as she allowed the other woman to weep, a faint smile floating on her lips. She did not revel in her pain, per se, but something about the way Estelle clung to her left her with a pang in her chest that cut to the core of her being, and she had never felt so trusted by another person before in her life. Not in thousands of years. Arakhne could not stop herself from kissing the top of the other woman’s head.

Neither of the two women heard the small footsteps that approached them. As Arakhne held Estelle, the mice, who had hoisted themselves up from the garden below, made their way toward the door to the terrace, their eyes wide as they squeaked to each other. Some of them had whiskers curled from the heat of the flames, and others had lost theirs entirely, hobbling about and feeling the ground as if they had missing limbs and needed some more support. They clambered over to Arakhne and Estelle, scampering onto the two women and nuzzling against them as if seeking to comfort and be comforted by both women in return.

After a moment, Estelle rose, wiping her eyes and nose in her arm, but still straddling Arakhne. She returned the smile the other woman had not realized was still hanging on her face, giggling as the mice sought her attention. Stroking their heads, she, nonetheless, could not pull her gaze away from Arakhne. It was difficult to feel sad when surrounded by so much beauty.

“Thank you,” Estelle said, tucking a section of loose hair behind her ear. “And my apologies once again, I should watch where I am running… Would you like for me to help you up?”

Arakhne chuckled in response. “I’ve already gotten used to this position, truthfully. Just leave me here. The ground is comfortable once you lose feeling in your back.”

Estelle bit her lip to conceal her smile this time as she leaned down and eyed Arakhne, who made no move to get up. The sun emerged from behind the clouds as it began sinking lower in the sky, casting long, dark shapes across the mountain. Arakhne returned Estelle’s gaze, lying beneath the other woman’s shadow. She swallowed as she felt her face flush, her hands beginning to sweat.

 _Would you fucking kiss me already?_ Arakhne thought, opening one of her eyes a crack.

With a sigh, Estelle brushed the hair from Arakhne’s face, her hand trembling. Her fingers lingered on the other woman’s face, her skin as soft as the silk dress Arakhne had sewn before having her life upended. 

_Now we’re getting somewhere…_

In that moment, Estelle focused to the point where all she could see were Arakhne’s lips taunting her. It was as if something were physically blocking her from leaning forward and doing what she wished she had done ages ago. 

She allowed herself to be caught up in her thoughts, the whirlpool behind her eyelids beginning to make her dizzy as the sky began to shake and stir around her. 

All of a sudden, a force from behind Estelle knocked her forward, sending her lips careening into Arakhne’s and catching her off guard. She did not hear the small clap of the mice high-fiving each other, for the softness of Arakhne’s lips felt too inviting and thus they distracted her from the world around her. Arakhne kissed Estelle back with such fervor that, were she mortal, the other woman would draw the air out of her lungs and suffocate her. But Estelle could not protest, instead allowing Arakhne to wrap her arms around her neck.

Finding it near impossible to form a coherent thought, Estelle could only move on auto-pilot as she melted into the embrace and in turn, Arakhne became molten gold at her touch. 

“I’ve been wanting you… to touch me…” Arakhne breathed, shuddering as she took one of Estelle’s hands and guided it under her robe and between her legs, “since I saw you in the greenhouse that day...”

Estelle almost froze when she heard those words, her face flushing and beginning to glimmer as she pulled away so she could look at Arakhne, as if it would help her understand what had been said to her. Arakhne reached up to the top of her own robes and pulled them off her shoulders, exposing her breasts. The rays of the setting sun glinted off the barbells nestled in both her nipples.

“... Really?” was all Estelle could say in response as she looked away from Arakhne’s chest.

Arakhne let out a soft, breathy laugh at this. “Of course… And you don’t have to be so polite… I like when you look at me…”

Pursing her lips, Estelle shifted her gaze away from the bricks on the terrace to Arakhne, who had propped herself up on her elbows as she smirked at the other woman, face red, her breasts at eye-level with Estelle. Arakhne had wriggled out of her robe even further, paying no mind to the cool air around her.

Hesitating, Estelle slid her hand farther up under Arakhne’s skirts slowly, feeling how wet the other woman was. She was almost… _proud_ of herself when Arakhne trembled and tensed under her. 

“Ah… _yes…_ Estelle…” Arakhne moaned, reaching out and untying the other woman’s dress and pulling it off her before settling back on the ground and wrenching Estelle closer to her. 

Overcome with boldness as Arakhne responded to her touches, Estelle kissed the other woman’s feverish lips once more, pushing her tongue into her mouth and cursing herself for being so hesitant. Estelle sighed as she took one of Arakhne’s hands and slid it between her own legs. It did not take her long to see the stars she was made from.

As Arakhne neared her climax, she took Estelle’s other hand and wrapped it around her own neck, seeing white as she shook and shuddered, crying out Estelle’s name and hundreds of other unmentionable words that would stay between the two of them.

Collapsing next to Arakhne, Estelle stared at the sky, her dark eyes seeming to absorb all the light that was available in the vicinity. Arakhne panted beside her, eyes closed as she tried to regulate her heart and bring it down from light speed. She let her head drop to the side and when she opened her eyes again, she gave Estelle a small smile. 

“That was fun,” Arakhne murmured, as she rolled closer to Estelle, who twinkled in the night sky.

Still shaking, Estelle nodded, letting the grin spread across her face, and not bothering to bite it back. 

They lay in comfortable silence for a while, exposed to the night air that nipped at their skin. Estelle paid it no mind, but Arakhne’s body soon began to feel the effects of the dropping temperature. She wanted to stay where she was, though, despite her corporeal form’s mortal protestation.

Arakhne gazed up at the sky as well, listening to the cicadas as they began their song. She felt at peace. 

_Was it worth it?_ Arakhne thought again, eyes drifting to Estelle, who had fallen asleep on the bricks beside her.

She did not have to wait for another beat of her swelling heart to know the answer.

_Yes._

_\--------------------_

Soledad stood among the now-dried, blackened garments that hung around the room like trees in a forest, blocking any ease of movement. She had her hands on her hips and admired her work for a moment, before her face fell. This forest of dresses would take time for her to wade through. And her lack of technical skill in anything to do with dressmaking coupled with the sheer volume of her workload made her think that maybe, she would need Estelle’s help after all.

Grimacing, Soledad scratched the back of her neck and looked at the maze of cloth once again, realizing she would not be able to walk through this so easily. She could feel heat rising inside her, the claustrophobia clawing at the inside of her throat and turning it raw. The footsteps coming down the hallway sent her slamming against a bookcase and ending up with a book bonking her on the head and bounding down to the floor where it landed with a heavy _thud._ She groaned as she picked it up, cursing under her breath and turning to throw it out the window.

“ _Sister!_ ” 

Tossing the book up into the air and juggling it twice in surprise, Soledad whipped toward the doorway.

“It appears you have made it through the first stage. Congratulations,” Luna said, standing in the entrance to the room and examining Soledad’s handiwork with her arms crossed. “I heard a noise and was expecting you to have destroyed something else. Good to know you have kept everything intact. Er, as intact as can be given the situation, that is.”

“I said I would,” Soledad responded, looking around her for a place to set the book down. She opened it and pretended to look through it. “Do not expect me to fail immediately, sister. Have some more faith in me, would you?”

Luna raised both eyebrows and stepped around the barricade of hanging clothes, nodding before pausing. “You have gotten yourself stuck, I see.”

“Not at all. In fact I did that on purpose. Optimizing the space we have is important.”

Rolling her eyes, Luna shook her head. “Well, if you should ever need to remove yourself from a… tight spot, it would help to not forget your own powers. Such as, say, flying.”

“Noted, sister. Now if you will excuse me, I have work to do,” Soledad said, not looking up from the book. 

Luna chuckled and padded back down the corridor, leaving Soledad to stand there alone over the tome she had opened, which turned out to be far more useful than she had expected it to be at first. Soledad glanced up from the book and then back down at it, sitting down and taking a closer look. In it were rich descriptions of different types of fabrics, weaving techniques, and anything she would need to know about crafting garments. The other books on the shelf were all of similar contents. If she would not ask Arakhne for help on principle she would have to consult all the knowledge she had available to her on the subject, then.

Tucking a few of the books under her arms, Soledad leapt over the hanging garments that, from above, resembled a colony of bats at rest. She landed with a soft _tap_ in front of the doorway and returned to Arakhne’s workroom. 

As Soledad entered, she saw Arakhne removing one of the parts of the Golden Fleece from where it hung in the window. It seemed to pulsate and glow even more than it did in the daytime. Soledad stared at it, her eyes aglow.

“Try not to set this on fire,” Arakhne mused, wrapping the piece of the Fleece in several layers of glossy white fabric.

“Haha, hilarious. I will have you know I am well on my way to making the necessary repairs.”

“Great. Fantastic. Would you like a medal? You don’t need me telling you that you shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

Gritting her teeth, Soledad closed her eyes and then opened them slowly again. For once, she said nothing.

“You see this?” Arakhne said, motioning to the Fleece she had wrapped as she set out another piece on the balcony, positioning it so the moonlight shone on it directly. “That’s what I’m going to use to make your dress. And after that stunt you pulled, I could very easily have just destroyed it, and you’d be the only one without a dress. But I didn’t destroy it. You know why?”

Soledad bristled and stared Arakhne in the face. “Why then?”

“Because I don’t believe in revenge. I may be a cunt, but I’m not a vengeful person.”

Shifting her gaze to her feet, Soledad nodded, feeling her temperature begin to rise again. All she could muster was a “Good night” before she turned and stalked back down the hallway. Arakhne watched her go.


	10. Envy's Ultimatum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Estelle and Luna help Arakhne work; Soledad drops a book.

“Let us help you,” Luna said, eyeing one of the three pieces of the Fleece that Arakhne had wrapped and stowed away. 

“Yes, we have hands and can work. There is no sense in us being idle when you have kindly allowed us to stay in your palace,” Estelle added, tilting her head to the side as she watched Arakhne adjust her goggles with her gloved hands.

“Would you two stop yammering so loudly? I cannot concentrate with all this noise,” Soledad shouted from across the room, not looking up from her book from where she lay on the bed.

“Then go somewhere else!” Arakhne barked, blushing as her head snapped to the side to face the other woman. “There are plenty of other rooms, you’re not confined to just this one, you know. And it’s going to get messy so don’t say I didn’t warn you.” 

Soledad rolled her eyes, groaning, but made no move to leave. Instead, she shifted to a position where the heavy, leather-bound book hovered over her face. 

“ _Anyway…_ ” Arakhne continued, “Fine. You can help me. But don’t blame me if there are too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak.”

Estelle clapped her hands, smiling. Luna nodded, searching around the room for more equipment as Arakhne began unpacking the pieces of Fleece. Arakhne set each piece before one of the large wooden frames that scraped the ceiling, where she had stretched out what appeared to be translucent silk.

“Open the windows,” Arakhne said to Luna, flicking her head in their direction as she spoke. She tossed a pair of the black gloves to Estelle, who caught them, expecting them to be far lighter than they were. “And put these on. They’re made from lead and should protect you from having a repeat of your little accident.”

Once Luna was suited up, she and Estelle gathered around Arakhne as the other woman tied up her skirts and put a mask over her face. She picked up the part of the Fleece that lay wrapped in the white material on the floor. The Fleece that had been golden was now instead the color of the night sky as seen in the most remote parts of the Earth: it pulsated with deep purples and blues with white sprinkled throughout. It looked as if the beating heart of the universe itself sat in Arakhne’s hands. She pulled it, stretching it without needing to exert much effort; it came apart like a glutinous dough. 

As Arakhne continued, careful so as to not tear the Fleece into pieces, she stepped up onto the ladder and began sticking the Fleece to the material in the frame, ensuring that there were no gaps or parts of the cloth that remained bare. The Fleece coming in contact with the fabric caused it to sizzle as smoke twirled through the air and out the opened window. As the sizzling grew louder, becoming so loud it sounded like explosives, it masked the loud _thud_ and _ack!_ of Soledad as she dropped her book on her face in surprise. None of the other women paid her any mind.

After watching Arakhne demonstrate, Luna took one of the other pieces of the Fleece in her hands, baking in the heat of it and feeling as if she were being roasted like a chicken. She pulled at it and, sure enough, it complied in the same way as the other piece had. Taking her time, Luna floated to the top of the frame, her braided hair scraping against the stucco ceiling as she painted the Fleece into the silk with her nose almost flattened up against it. 

When Arakhne had finished her work, she climbed down from the ladder and inspected Luna’s efforts, nodding. She smiled to herself as she let her eyes linger longer than she had realized on the other woman’s silhouette, trailing down her body to her backside before a shriek behind her smacked her back into her workshop.

Both Luna and Arakhne whipped around to see Estelle scrambling with the Fleece in her hands, looking as if she were attempting to balance it in her grasp as it dripped to the ground like mercury from a broken thermometer. Arakhne rushed over to the other woman, directing her back toward the white cloth from which she had taken the Fleece, and gathering up all the remnants that had dropped with a sharp _hiss_ to the marble floor, where they left charred black gashes resembling stab wounds. 

Shaking, Estelle could only watch as Arakhne sorted what she had almost ruined. The other woman wrapped the white cloth up tightly and placed what looked like a black bucket over it all before approaching her as she removed her mask and goggles, frowning while her eyebrows knit together.

“You were working too quickly,” Arakhne scolded, peeling off the leaden gloves and flinging them aside. “We can try again in a moment, but this time you need to relax and don’t get nervous when you’re handling it. It feeds on your insecurity.”

Nodding, Estelle allowed Arakhne to take her by the arm and seat her on the bed, but not before Arakhne shoved Soledad out of the way so she could make room for her, unaware of the few millimeters the other woman actually had left. Soledad cursed as she tumbled off the bed and onto the floor, and could not resist cursing and raising her middle finger at the other women as she wandered off to one of the other rooms in Arakhne’s palace.

“Hey, my bad!” Arakhne called after her, and Estelle tried to suppress her giggle to no avail.

Arakhne cringed as she watched Soledad leave before tucking Estelle’s hair behind her ear and helping her back up.

“She will get over it,” Estelle said, putting her gloves back on as she glanced at Luna, who had succeeded in covering the entirety of the fabric with the substance absorbed by the Fleece.

Crossing her arms and standing back, Luna admired her handiwork as she brushed the stray hairs that had fallen into her face away with the back of her forearm. Arakhne stood beside her, close enough that their shoulders did more than brush against each other. 

“Not bad,” Arakhne grinned, looking first at the bright cloth reminiscent of a fire and then at Luna, their faces close enough that Arakhne’s hair brushed against her neck.

“Thank you,” Luna replied, savoring the softness of Arakhne’s skin against her own. 

“I’m glad I don’t have to worry about you ruining anything,” Arakhne said as she rested her cheek on Luna’s shoulder.

Estelle cleared her throat behind them and Luna side-stepped immediately, leaving Arakhne needing to catch herself from almost falling over. 

“What the-- why did you do that?!” Arakhne snapped, facing the two sisters, eyes narrowed.

Grimacing as her gaze darted between Estelle and Arakhne, Luna said nothing for a moment. Estelle raised an eyebrow. 

“Do not attempt to deceive me, sister,” Estelle warned. 

“All right, if that is how you want to behave, fine,” Luna responded, her tone level. “If we are working, we should be professional, no? There is not time for affection in these situations.”

“You’re full of shit,” Arakhne said, and her face did not know whether to smile or scowl. “What’s going on with you two?”

“Yes, sister, what is going on with you?” Estelle mimicked Arakhne, crossing her arms.

“Don’t act like you weren’t included in that because I’m asking you the same question,” Arakhne said as she stroked her chin.

Falling silent as well, Estelle pouted. 

“The _real_ truth is that Estelle seems to find any sort of interaction between you and I as a cause for jealousy and I am tired of it.”

It was Arakhne’s turn to be at a loss of words. She felt her face turn several shades of red and all she could do was stare at the space between the two women. Estelle, however, could only sigh.

“That is what you are on about? What reason would I have to be jealous?!”

“Do not act as if I am stating something ludicrous because I know how much you feared I would steal Arakhne away from you!” Luna replied, her voice shaking.

“And did you not tell me you would no longer pursue her? I trust you less and less with each word, sister.”

“ _You_ are the one who is being unreasonable right now, do not change the subject,” Luna said, beginning to glow.

“ _Enough!”_ Arakhne yelled, holding her hands up to her ears. “I’m literally right here. Perhaps it would be smarter to ask me my opinion as well, right? You’re both being so dumb right now. I thought you were grown-ups.”

Estelle said nothing, standing there as her body twinkled, and Luna’s glimmer faded a bit. Arakhne felt as if she were watching a comet race through the sky when she looked at the two women. Shielding her face with her arms, she stepped back, sensing the heat of the cloth in the frame behind her.

“What is your opinion, then?” Luna asked, voice low and cool.

“On what?”

“Well, you said we should ask your opinion, on which of us you like the most. Who is it?”

Arakhne paused, opening her mouth to speak before closing it as her body began to heat up. She was conscious of the two women’s eyes on her. 

“You can’t just put me on the spot like that…”

“Give us an answer, then. Go on.”

Bristling, Arakhne picked up her gloves from the floor and began to put them back on. “This isn’t my problem. I don’t have time for this.”

Luna stepped closer to Arakhne, and the other woman swallowed while looking at everything but Luna’s face. She pulled her goggles down to cover her eyes, but Luna pushed them back up and took the other woman’s chin in her hand.

“Look at me,” Luna commanded, “All of this can wait. I want to know, which of us would you choose?”

“Leave her be, sister,” Estelle protested, her voice soft. She pulled Luna’s hand away from the other woman, but Luna swatted her away.

“I asked you a question.”

There was a pause between the three women, and Arakhne gazed out the window, her lip quivering. 

“I don’t know,” Arakhne said finally, her face pink. “I… can’t choose just one of you, all right? Are you happy?”

“What do you mean you cannot choose?”

“I can’t choose between you two… and even Soledad… I can’t picture my life without the three of you. Is that what you wanted to hear?” Arakhne muttered, her voice fading away with each word. A tear spilled over her eyelid and trailed down her face; she wiped it away with her wrist and turned away. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

“Wait--” Luna began, reaching out to touch Arakhne once more, but Estelle intercepted this time and blocked her, her face scrunched up in an unreadable expression.

“There is no sense in bothering her about this any further,” Estelle warned. She followed her sister with her eyes as she walked back toward Arakhne, who stood before the one frame that had not been completed.

 _Finally, progress,_ Luna thought, and she could not stop her lips from curling upward. 

“Are you pleased with that outcome, sister?” Luna questioned Estelle, and the other woman tipped her head to the side.

“I am not sure, but you certainly seem to be.”

“Think it over, then. I have no qualms.”

With that, Luna departed, leaving Estelle and Arakhne alone.

“Would you show me how it is done?” Estelle asked, resting her hand on Arakhne’s shoulder, and the other woman jumped on contact. 

“Sure,” was all Arakhne said, her voice small, as if it were coming from somewhere outside of her own body. 

Arakhne picked the overturned bucket up from the floor and rolled it away. She unfurled the cloth where she had stowed the Fleece, careful so as to not drop anything on the floor. Estelle waited, gloved and ready. Arakhne placed the Fleece into her hands, standing behind Estelle as she cradled the other woman’s hands in her own as means of support. She began to guide her.

“Just follow my lead.”


	11. The Specter's Labors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soledad tries her best; Luna feels a sensation; Arakhne has a vision.

After the days bled into months and Soledad read all she could, she knew that at some point, she would need to begin to work. She watched as the sun rose and set and Arakhne pushed onward, steady and diligent as the passing of the seasons and the rise and fall of the tides, seeming to be entranced and unafraid of the task she had taken on. As Arakhne sewed into the nights, Soledad watched her from afar, studying her movements and absorbing all the knowledge of her techniques that she could.

Soledad perched on the bench before the loom, slamming the leather-bound book closed and setting it aside. She took the first garment into her hands, remembering what she had read as she placed it next to the sheet of red fabric that she would use to refurbish it. Thanking the heavens for Arakhne’s refusal to throw any of her plans and designs away, Soledad examined the original and then slipped the dress onto one of the mannequins that littered the already crowded room. 

She took a pin cushion full of needles from the cabinet and began following the design, wrapping the cloth around the burnt dress and pinning it where appropriate. When she finished, she stepped back and examined her work with her hands on her hips, beaming. Her bliss was short-lived, however, as her face fell when she realized how misshapen the design looked, with fabric bulging out in an unflattering way, resembling a giant lumpy mass rather than a dress. 

“How hideous…” Soledad muttered to herself, setting aside the drawing and pulling the cloth away from the mannequin and sending needles flying about the room, with some lodging themselves into her hands and eliciting a hiss of frustration and pain. “I must begin all over again…”

Throwing the needle-laden fabric on the floor, Soledad groaned as she took a step forward only to have a sharp pain shoot up her foot. She paused, grabbing her foot and turning it upside down so she could dig out the pin she had jammed into the middle of it. Her temperature began to rise. She needed to lie down.

Hopping and floating over to the bed on one foot, Soledad fell back and stared up at the ceiling, the frown etched into her visage like a carving in a rock face. 

_ I will never be able to complete this… All that reading was for naught… _

Sighing, Soledad rolled over onto her belly and pounded her fists into the mattress in an attempt to release her frustration. She picked up one of the many pillows that littered the bed and flung it over her shoulder.

“Sister, why do you insist on creating chaos everywhere you go?” came Luna’s voice from behind her as the other woman leaned down to catch the pillow with ease. 

Luna tossed the pillow back onto the bed, pretending she did not intend to let it whack Soledad upside the head. “Apologies.”

Soledad buried her face in her arms. “Leave me be, I know you will simply lecture me for being irresponsible, irrational, and impulsive, and tell me that I should not make promises I cannot keep. There is no need to gloat, I am already aware.”

“You behave as if I have not known you our whole lives. And yet this is the first time you have listened to anyone. I remember how difficult it was to engage you in anything you were not already passionate about, how I and others struggled to get through to you. What does Arakhne have that I lack?”

Cocking an eyebrow, Soledad looked up as Luna sat on the edge of the bed beside her. “What are you on about, sister?”

“Had this been any other situation, you would have given up long ago. I have never considered you to be such a voracious reader, and on the subject of dressmaking, no less. I can only ask, what compels this sudden desire?”

“Am I not permitted to attempt to remedy my own misdeeds?” Soledad asked, sitting up and facing her sister head-on. “It is but the correct response to causing such a colossal amount of damage.”

Smiling her invisible smile, Luna eyed her sister in return. “It is because of her that you desire self improvement. Finally, you have met your match.”

“Stop that,” Soledad mused, her cheeks glowing. “I know you enjoy saying things that are true to fluster us. Do you expect me to deny it?”

“Not at all. I simply find it amusing that you among the three of us found her to be the most insufferable. But I suppose you could never resist a beautiful woman.”

Burying her face in her hands, Soledad rolled her eyes before smacking Luna on the arm. “At least I do not pretend to be her knight in shining armor, Princess Luna of House Dios.” 

Scoffing, Luna swatted Soledad in return before crossing her arms, turning her face away, and closing her eyes. “Do not call me that.”

“Or should I say,  _ Queen  _ Luna of House Dios?” Soledad teased, chuckling to herself. “Regardless, if,” she lowered her voice before saying, “Athena,” then continued on at a normal volume, “were here, we would not stand a chance.”

“If who were here?” came the voice from the corridor as Arakhne shuffled into the room, glancing around at the garments cluttering the room and grimacing as she wiped sweat from her brow. “Good news, I’m almost finished with your dresses. But it doesn’t look like any of these clothes have moved in ages. Are you sure you’re fine? I know I said I wouldn’t have anything to do with it but I can help you. This is all a bit… sad.”

“ _ No,”  _ Soledad replied with a bit too much force. “You have already given me your designs and all your resources, and you have already put the work in once.”

Arakhne blinked, her cheeks going pink. She smirked. “All right, I’m just checking… I guess I forgot that you’re a grownup now…”

Luna chuckled, giving her sister a sidelong glance. “Soledad was simply resting. I was telling her I have never seen her show so much dedication to a task that was not painting or causing trouble. It is unlike her…”

“Shut up…” Soledad said, rolling her eyes and nudging her sister with her shoulder. “But it is true, I am going at my own pace. There is no rush. I will get back to work now, though. Perhaps I should try a different approach this time, as it may prove to be less frustrating.”

Nodding, Arakhne fanned herself with her hand as she wiped some sweat away with a cloth. She unlaced the front of her robes a bit as she stepped out onto the balcony, exhaling as the wind danced across her body. Soledad rose from the bed and returned to the mannequin so she could continue her attempts. 

“I will have Estelle help you. She must be bored.”

“Estelle is a grown woman who can make her own choices. If she wants to help me she can tell me herself,” Soledad said in a monotone as she began re-inserting pins into the fabric. “Plus I imagine she is plenty busy with following Arakhne about like a pup.”

“Do not think yourself above her, we are all doing the same thing in one way or another,” Luna mused, peering through the door to the balcony that Arakhne had left open a crack. “Books can only teach you so much. And there is taking responsibility and being silly, and I think you are leaning more toward the latter option currently, sister. It pains me to see you struggle so.”

Soledad focused on her work in that moment, jamming each pin into the cloth with increased force, her movements becoming more erratic with each passing second, like a woodpecker searching for its next meal. Luna did not know how long she watched this, and there were no clocks in Arakhne’s palace for her to look at. All she could do was cringe whenever her sister stuck herself one of the pins and cursed aloud, not seeming to make any significant progress at all.

“That is it, I am getting Estelle,” Luna said with an air of finality as she stormed from the room. “Where have you gone, sister?”

She strode down the hallway, the stained glass and marble walls which had become more familiar to her over the time she had spent there. To call it  _ home  _ would oversell it, but the silence aside from the occasional squeaks of mice or squawks of birds helped clear her mind. Walking unencumbered by others who sought her counsel in political affairs seemed like a stroll through a universe away from her real home. She did not know if she was looking forward to her return. 

As she made her way down the corridor, Luna heard clicking and clanging wafting down to greet her. She paused, looking behind her and then around to see if perhaps she was being followed by one of the mice carrying plates as they tended to do. But she was greeted by nothing, only the quickening pace of the sound. It was difficult to pinpoint where it was coming from.

Suddenly, the ground beneath her began to shake in tune with the porcelain noise that filled the air. Luna watched as Rhode and the other mice scampered along the floor from the kitchen, motioning for her to follow. Knitting her eyebrows together, Luna glanced to the side when she saw a shadow pass through the window for a split second, casting a cover of darkness across the corridor that would have stopped her heart if she had one. 

And as soon as the shadow had disappeared, the shaking stopped, and everything returned to how it had been.

\---------------------

Arakhne breathed in through her nose, the air heavy, hot and damp in her throat. Her head lolled to the side, body relaxed and eyes closed as she rested against the soft and smooth surface as a cool breeze glided over her sweat-sheened skin. A wave of pleasure washed over her and she could not stop herself from dropping a low moan from her lips; another pair of lips swallowed the sound from her mouth.

Writhing against the sheets, Arakhne groaned, eyes rolling back into her head as hands stroked her from all sides. She felt someone touching her between her legs, playing with her nipples and kissing her and she did not know which sensation to focus on as it all overwhelmed her -- it was as if she were in a pool, engulfed to the point where her brain could not process what was happening. After a moment there was a pause, and Arakhne opened her eyes, slow and languid. 

Her heart caught in her throat when she saw the familiar faces of the three sisters surrounding her. Estelle lay next to her, naked, embracing Arakhne with a soft smile tugging at her lips and a tinge of pink on her cheeks. On her other side was Luna, looking relaxed, the other woman’s gentle hand caressing her face with her cool fingers. Between Arakhne’s legs sat Soledad with a smirk on her face as she rubbed against the other woman. Soledad brought Arakhne’s hand to her lips and kissed it; Arakhne blushed.

They sat like that in silence, and despite Arakhne’s heart threatening to run from her chest and leap out of the sky to its demise, she felt content. There was nowhere else she would rather be. She closed her eyes again, a smile on her face, and sighed. 

Suddenly, the humid air felt like it had frozen in place, a glacier that held her suspended where she lay. Arakhne frowned and opened her eyes. Where the three women had been was instead nothingness. It was dark, and she was alone; from directly ahead, she could see an unfamiliar glow greeting her. 

Before her stood a woman with golden hair that seemed to blow in a nonexistent breeze as if it had a life of its own; her skin was tan, as if she were sculpted from bronze. Her silhouette was outlined in a blinding glow in the darkness. She wore an emerald robe with a gilded chestplate over it with a shield strapped to her back and had a spear in her hand. On her head sat a fathered helm with slits from which her alpine grey eyes bored into Arakhne. The earth began to convulse and fall into itself at her feet. She smirked.

“Boo.”

Arakhne screamed and opened her eyes, sitting up in bed as the sun climbed over the horizon as if all were well. Where the woman had stood before only air remained in her place. The earth shook once more, sending Arakhne’s insides into a spiral as a shadow blocked out the light. 

A rumble sounded and she screamed again.


	12. The Apple of Discord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang has a visitor; chaos ensues.

_She’s fucking here._

Arakhne sprung from her bed, taking the first robe she could find and draping it across her body in a haphazard way. The earth beneath her feet vibrated and she grabbed onto one of the wooden columns of her four-poster bed to balance herself, head spinning. 

“What in the Three Realms are you shrieking about?!” From the other side of the room, Soledad leapt to her feet and took the nearest blunt object as soon as she heard Arakhne’s screams. 

The shadow outside shifted, and Soledad approached the door to the balcony and looked outside, brandishing her candlestick in as threatening a manner as she could muster. Luna jumped in her sleep beside Arakhne, her eyes unhurried as they opened and she blinked a few times. She rose and joined her sister beside the drapes, eyebrows knit together as she shuffled across the floor, sleep still clinging to her.

Estelle remained in deep slumber on Arakhne’s bed, the soft twinkling of her sleeping form almost invisible as the sun shined on it. The shadow that had been cast over them all had disappeared. 

“Athena’s here,” Arakhne said as she nudged Estelle in an attempt to wake her, her voice strained and rushed. “I saw her in my dream… Oh Estelle, please wake the fuck _up!_ ”

“She sleeps like a rock, that one,” Soledad quipped, opening the door to the balcony and stepping outside. “There is no way Athena was able to manage such an ascent… let me have a look…”

“What are you doing _,_ are you _mad?_ ” Luna called after her sister, following after her and grabbing Soledad by the shoulder in an attempt to pull her back inside. “She will _see_ you! And your candlestick will be as effective as a pillow against her, please use your head… I am serious!”

“I will not die so easily…” Soledad muttered, shrugging off Luna’s hand. “Have some faith in me, sister.”

“ _Soledad!_ ” Luna shouted, “If you do anything to her at all, the whole of Olympus will be after us!”

Stopping in her tracks, Soledad’s eyes widened. “They what now?”

“That was the agreement that was made. Arakhne’s life for us to stay out of the affairs of Olympus. They will not care to hear that we were acting in self-defense, and Athena would be more than happy to get us involved, I am certain.”

Gripping the candlestick tighter, Soledad flared her nostrils. “What was all that nonsense about us being able to protect Arakhne, then? Was that simply to placate her fears? You lied to us all.”

“Do not call me a liar. I did what needed to be done. Otherwise she would not have been able to work.”

“We should have left ages ago, then. Hell, we should not have even come to this place!” Soledad said, her voice rising with each word. “Now each of us is smitten with this woman and it causes us to behave like imbeciles…”

“You do not need anyone’s help to act an imbecile,” Luna could not stop herself from responding.

As soon as Soledad opened her mouth to respond, the two women heard a cry from within Arakhne’s room. They rushed inside, returning to see Estelle sat beside Arakhne and patting the other woman’s back as she rocked back and forth, her eyes puffy and red from crying. 

“Arakhne says Athena is here… Is this true?” Estelle asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes with her knuckles. “If so, why are we sitting about?”

“Apparently we will not be able to defend ourselves against her as our lovely sister here neglected to tell us that retaliation would cause a war of the gods on the scale of that little one that occurred in Troy. You may have heard of it,” Soledad responded.

“Stop this, there will be no war. We will need to leave,” Luna said with an air of finality. 

“She is in no state to go anywhere, sister. Look. It seems she is close to losing her mind,” Estelle countered. 

“There is no other option. Carry her if you must,” Luna commanded.

It was at the moment that Luna turned to leave the room that everything within began to tip sideways. Furniture began sliding about and toppling over. Books slipped off shelves in droves, far enough away from the women that they were able to avoid getting knocked in the head. As if her body moved on its own accord, Soledad scooped a shaking Arakhne up in her arms and ran out onto the balcony to safety.

Estelle and Luna followed close behind, and they all leapt out onto the garden below as the mountain moved so it was perpendicular with the earth thousands of kilometers below them. They scrambled to grab onto a ledge, _any_ ledge, as an arm shot up from the edge of the mountain and slammed down on the grass, causing the floating island to rock back and forth as it seemed to hold itself up.

The mountain shook again as another arm came into view, and a moment later the top of a helmet rose from below as the figure pulled her body up with all her strength. Allowing herself to fall back back, Athena used the momentum to fling herself up onto the grass of the mountain, grabbing onto the earth to steady herself as the island righted itself in the air and gravity put it back in its place. 

Chuckling, Athena brushed herself off as she rose, facing the palace. Luna and Estelle released the ledges they were hanging from and landed in the garden with grace. Soledad slid down the side of the wall and set Arakhne down on the soil like a sack of potatoes. As soon as Luna saw Athena stood there with her hair billowing, casting a formidable shadow, she froze.

“Do not think you can flee from me. You will not get far,” Athena said, her voice low but managing to echo across the sky as if it were coming from a choir. 

Glancing to the side, Luna tried to move. Her body would not cooperate, she realized; Estelle and Soledad both stood in place, and Arakhne sat in the grass, her face stuck in a contorted expression as only her eyes darted about.

Athena chuckled again as she shoved her hands into the pocket of her robes and strode across the walkway that cut through the garden, taking her time. A parrot that had been resting on one of the sconces outside Arakhne’s palace floated down to meet her, letting out a shriek before Athena flicked her chin toward it and it tumbled to the ground in a quiet heap, its head rolling across the cobblestone. Arakhne’s eyes trembled.

“It has been too long, Arakhne,” Athena cooed, crouching down before the woman and tilting her head to the side with a smile that did not reach her eyes. She glowed as she reached out to touch Arakhne’s cheek, staring deep into her eyes. Arakhne saw Kharon stood on his ferry and gazing back at her.

“I have had a great deal of time to think…” Athena continued, hand traveling down to Arakhne’s neck, where the faint scar from when she had been hanged years ago remained. “How would it be best to kill you? I asked myself. What would be the most fitting method for you to die a second time? I pondered this for many years, in the time I spent alone after becoming a _laughing stock_ among all of Olympus… It seems that the deal you had made with Kyrios was almost worse than death. He should stop trying to help humans and let them pay for the mistakes of their own stupidity...”

Sighing, Athena shook her head. “But you see, this plan was truly brilliant, in the end. Kyrios, in all his idiocy, did my bidding, even if he did not intend to. All I had to do was wait. And now, you can watch me kill each of your lovers, one by one, and then you will be begging me to kill you, too.”

With an even wider smile, Athena rose. She chuckled again, the sound echoing into a cacophony that would be etched into Arakhne’s brain for all of eternity.

Reaching over her shoulder, Athena drew her spear. Arakhne looked away.

“Oh no, that will not do. I want you to watch,” Athena said, forcing Arakhne’s head to move. “Yes… I will savor every moment of this…”

In the blink of an eye, Athena went flying through the air. Where she had stood, all that had been left behind was a spear. She shrieked as she fell over the edge of the mountain and plummeted down past the clouds, disappearing from view. In her place was Estelle, body twinkling as she kicked the spear away from her, brows furrowed.

For a moment time stood still. But then the other women regained control of their bodies as well. Arakhne looked at her hands, her whole body trembling as her veins pumped blood through her so fast she began seeing shapes floating in the air before her. She could not speak. Estelle took her by the arm, her touch gentle, and pulled her up to a standing position. 

“Estelle…” Luna said with a scowl, her voice quiet. “Do you realize what you have just done?”

“I saved us all from being murdered by Athena! Now let us all leave before she returns!”

“No, you moron. You have started another war. Good work, sister, you truly saved us,” Soledad said.

Luna sighed, rubbing her temples. “Our only way of weathering this will be to go to Heaven, then. We will have some protection for the time being.”

“Before we go…” Soledad said, “I must go get all our dresses…”

“We do not have time for that,” Luna insisted.

“Soledad, you don’t need to…” Arakhne muttered, rubbing her eyes. “Luna’s right. You need to get out of here… They’re just dresses, that’s all. Just some cloth...”

“But I- er, _Arakhne_ worked so long and hard on them all!” Soledad responded, indignant. “And I must get the mice as well. I cannot leave them here to die.”

She did not wait for an answer, and instead sprinted back to the palace.

Arakhne stood over the edge of the mountain as she had done so many times before, peering down into the clouds below as the wind picked up. She could not see the earth at that moment; instead, the vast expanse of white made her think of fresh fallen snow. Perhaps it would not hurt if she fell. For some reason, despite what had just happened, she felt calm.

Heart hammering in her chest as she came back into her body, Arakhne stepped back. She looked over her shoulder at her palace, where she had spent those countless nights alone with only her creatures and her children to accompany her. What had been her prison became her home. A tear rolled down her cheek, but her face remained expressionless. She did not have time to mourn. 

“I… don’t think I can leave.”

“You _must_ ,” Luna urged, holding her hand out, insistent. “Did you not hear? Athena will return, along with the rest of Olympus. You do not realize how much you are risking.”

“Then save yourselves. You’ve already given me more than enough. I cherished the time we spent together, but now I want it to be over. I don’t want to be afraid of her anymore,” Arakhne replied, her voice soft and shaking.

Estelle’s eyes widened as she came forward, grabbing Arakhne by the shoulders and gazing deep into her eyes. Her lip quivered as she spoke. “How could you say such a thing? Do not be a martyr for such a trivial matter! Especially not when I-”

Closing her mouth and looking away, Estelle felt her body begin to twinkle.

_Now is not the time…_ Estelle thought.

“What did you mean to say?” Luna asked. 

At that moment, a group of mice came bounding over from inside the palace, hopping into the pockets of the three women’s robes. They could hear Soledad’s voice bellowing from within as she cursed, telling the mice to scram unless they wanted to be left behind. 

“Yeah, what are you on about?” Arakhne asked as she pet Rhode’s head absently.

“Fine. What I meant to say was,” Estelle said, closing her eyes tightly, “that I cannot leave you behind… because I… I love you.”

Arakhne blinked. She stopped mid-pat and all she could do was stare at Estelle in disbelief, resembling an owl following a mouse at night. 

Luna smacked herself in the forehead and sighed. “For Father’s sake…”

“Do not make me say it again… But I do mean it…” 

Trembling, Arakhne took Estelle’s hands in her own, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes but her mouth betraying the smile she did not bother to hold in. She leaned in to kiss Estelle…

… And Luna cleared her throat, the sound echoing from the mountain and sounding much louder than she had intended. Arakhne whipped about and glared at her.

“What’s your problem?”

“We are wasting time. Once we get to Heaven we will have plenty of time to kiss and exchange pleasantries. But now is not the time unless you want to make good on your original proposition,” Luna replied in a deadpan tone. She clicked her tongue. “But I do not intend to let that happen so I suggest you two prepare yourselves. Unlike my sister I know when there is a time and place for these things.”

“Sister you are being incredibly long-winded,” Estelle said as she shook her head. She felt her pockets to ensure that the mice were hidden away and safe before taking Luna and Arakhne by the hands. “Let us go, then, and hope Soledad will follow.”

When Arakhne approached the edge of the mountain this time, she did not look down. The sun was warm on her back as she gazed into the heavens, squinting and seeing something far off in the distance for the first time. She had never taken the time to examine it properly through all these years. 

As her feet left the ground, Arakhne kept her head raised and forward, heart beating like a war drum, wondering if this was how angels felt as they returned to their roosts. She felt the presence of the two women beside her as they held her hands, perfectly balanced, as wings were meant to be. The speck in the distance began to grow larger as it rushed to meet them, glowing in a light much like that of the sun’s but even more powerful and brilliant as it bathed her in its radiance, much in the same way she felt when she was beside Soledad.

From behind them, a scream pierced the silence as Soledad hurtled through the sky carrying her giant sack of garments over her shoulder. She raced ahead of the trio, breaking through the shining gates as a chariot pulled by blinding pegasi trailed her. Several other figures appeared behind them, shooting up from the earth like fireworks. A golden apple bounced from cloud to cloud as if operating with a mind of its own. 

Estelle and Luna shared a glance, praying to their father and themselves that they would make it in time. 

Arakhne closed her eyes, trusting her wings to guide her.

( _The End.)_


End file.
